pretence ~ pretext ~ excuse
“Pretence” (noun; for the right pronunciation, please click here) {‘pretense’ is the spelling used in American English} is ‘the act of making somebody believe which is not true or real; the appearance or reason that is not real; false; too much show of false importance to attract others’ attention; pretending’,
e.g.
She stole all his money under the pretence of being his true love.
He wasn’t all that happy to see me but made some pretence of being extremely happy.
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“Pretext” (noun; for the right pronunciation, please click here) is ‘a false reason given for doing or for not doing something; a reason given in order to hide the real actions’,
e.g.
On the pretext of being ill, he left the classes, but in fact he went to the cinema.
My friend started looking for a pretext for not paying back the money he borrowed from me.
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“Excuse” (for the right pronunciation, please click here) as a noun, is ‘some reason given (true or false) for doing or not doing something’; as a verb, it is ‘to give some reason (true or false) to show that one is not responsible for and to be forgiven; not to punish someone for something on basing some reason’,
e.g.
My students always come up with some excuse for not doing their homework.
She was excused form punishment for being careless because of her good conduct.
