The phrase 'on the pretense' is correct and usable in written English.
It is usually used when someone is pretending or appearing to do something, but is really doing something else. For example: He pretended to be working on an important project, but was really playing a computer game on the pretense of working.
Instead of politics or art, the prosecution, with full compliance of the judge, was fully focussed on the pretense that the issues were ones of faith, God, the church, believers' offended feelings — even the devil.
Four men wearing yellow hard hats entered a home in Bensonhurst on the pretense of repairing a water main, and, as one of the men took the home's elderly occupants to the basement, the others ransacked the home, making off with $1,600 and jewelry, the police said.
Am I willing to see a hypnotherapist on the pretense that a video game dream sequence is actually one of my own?
Mr. Assad has attacked many of them on the pretense of attacking Nusra fighters.
The space, which was reserved on the pretense of a birthday celebration, had been chosen because it was secluded.
Trump campaigned on the pretense that his money made him independent, but that was just another lie.
He obtained a tourist visa to the U.S., on the pretense that he would stay with friends in Houston.
Then, in 2006, a man lured Ms. Hanni to a vacant home on the pretense of being a potential buyer.
-- Can you name a human endeavor that Congress cannot regulate on the pretense that the endeavor affects interstate commerce?
Dead of Night opens with architect Walter Craig (played by Mervyn Johns) being summoned to a country house on the pretense of acquiring work.
They met for dinner at a restaurant in Scottsdale, Ariz., on the pretense that Ms. Caldwell wanted to lend Mr. McDevitt a book on election fraud.
