One way to picture pretence: a painted screen stood up in front of what is really there. People look at the screen and believe it. Someone has to hold it up, so it can be kept up, and it can be dropped. The whole word is about the screen, never about what the person behind it feels.
Two branches
撐著一塊布景
這一支就是核心畫面本身：把布景擺出來，讓別人相信。句型幾乎都在描述對這塊布景做什麼——撐著、放掉、躲在它後面走過去。
noun · B2
A way of behaving that is meant to make other people believe something that is not true — you act a part instead of showing how things really are. It can also mean one whole act of this kind.
假裝；裝出來的樣子
只活在片語裡：under/on false pretences
同一塊布景，但看的角度換成「別人是隔著它答應的」。因為對方看到的是假的，那個答應就不算數，所以這個片語聽起來像指控。
noun · C1
If someone gets something or brings someone somewhere under false pretences, they do it by lying about who they are or what they really want, so that other people agree to something they would not have agreed to.
以不實說法騙取／騙來
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
pretencenoun/ˈpɹiːtɛns/
British standard spelling of pretense.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。