The phrase 'under a false pretense' is correct and can be used in written English.
You can use this phrase when you are describing a situation in which someone acted under the pretense of being something they were not. For example, "After months of trusting him, I realized he had been speaking to me under a false pretense."
But a lie is a story slipped under false pretense, like poison in the queen's goblet, or the fence collapsing under Denis's weight, and then my own.
In most cases, it's under the false pretense of a better, holier and more exciting life.
This entire date had been set up for me to head over to the home of the girl I'd been making out with, under the false pretense of an intentionally uninteresting-to-me movie, so we could have sex for the first time with as little stressful planning and verbal recognizing of impending sex as possible.
According to the Associated Press, Brown is facing felony charges, including obtaining property under false pretense, uttering a forged security and possession of counterfeiting tools.
"She broke contract and took Willie under false pretense.
If you do these things, you won't seem glamorous, you'll just seem like you are under false pretense.
This is a president who conducted a war under false pretenses, squandered the economic surplus, polluted the environment, assaulted our civil liberties, broke down the separation between church and state, supported a constitutional amendment against gay marriage, and opposed reproductive rights and stem cell research.
I hope that you will find the time to read it and that you will agree with its essential conclusion that George Bush took this nation to war in Iraq on a lie, under false pretenses, and therefore, under the law, he is guilty of murder for the deaths of over 4,000 young American soldiers who have died so far fighting his war in Iraq.
Clearly, reselling a service under false pretenses, when the costs are borne by a different company that reaps no commission, is -- and should remain -- illegal.
