Principle vs. Principal

• A principle is a rule, a law, a guideline, or a fact.
• A principal is the headmaster of a school or a person who’s in charge of certain things in a company.
• Principal is also an adjective that means original, first, or most important.

Words with shared roots often end up with similar meanings in modern use. Principle and principal are two such words. Both of them entered English through Old French. Both have Latin roots—principium, which means “source” is the root of principle, and principalis, Latin for “first,” is the root of principal. If we were to dig a little bit deeper, we would see that the Latin roots can be traced to the same word—princeps, princip, which means “first”, or “chief.” Principle and principal are also pronounced the same way (PRIN-suh-pul), but that only adds to the confusion because the two words have different meanings.

Principle Definition and Examples

Principle is a word that’s always used as a noun, and it has a couple of meanings:

A fundamental truth upon which systems of beliefs and morals are formed:

I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

A guiding rule that explains how something works:

When we asked Bill Nye the Science Guy if he thinks we are living in a computer-generated simulation, he turned to some basic scientific principles to justify his answer. —Big Think

The program consists of a year of monthly classroom-style lectures and workshops that put to use legal skills and enhance attorneys’ business principles. —The Charlotte Observer

A scientific rule or law:

Water, following the principle of gravity, will run downhill thus forming new channels. —Northern California News

Principal Definition and Examples

Principal can be used both as an adjective and a noun. When used as an adjective, principal has two main meanings.

The first in order of importance:

The company pointed me to the words of Andrew Chatham, a principal engineer. —CNet

Red Sox principal owner John Henry also owns England’s Liverpool Football Club, a Premier League team. —Boston Herald

The originally invested amount of money:

Hit hard by the retrospective tax, Cairn Energy Plc of the UK has offered to pay 15 per cent of the Rs 10,247-crore principal amount in return for the government lifting its freeze on the 9.8 per cent shares it holds in its erstwhile subsidiary, Cairn India. —Business Standard

When used as a noun, principal also has a couple of meanings.

The head of an educational institution:

The principal of the troubled Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn said on Thursday that he is leaving the post. —The Wall Street Journal

In the business world, a principal is the person who owns a company, is a partner in a company, or is the person or entity who engages another person or entity to act as an agent:

Quantum Financial Principal Claire Mackay says changes to concessional caps mean “people need to be thinking about their super earlier.” —NEWS.com.au

The most important or highest ranked members of a troupe, a ballet company, or the headliners of an event:

With this year’s “Nutcracker,” Alexander says, the school hopes to “encourage our students that you don’t need to be 27 or the principal of a company to do those (second-act) roles. —Chicago Tribune

Learned or Learnt?

There are many perks to speaking the lingua franca of your time, but one of the downsides is that you’ll always doubt whether you’re using it right. English has almost as many variants as there are countries that use it as their official language. A great example of that is the past tense of the verb learn—is it learnt? Or is it learned?

Learnt and learned are both used as the past participle and past tense of the verb to learn. Learned is the generally accepted spelling in the United States and Canada, while the rest of the English-speaking world seems to prefer learnt.

Learn more about the details of this difference below.

The Difference between Learned and Learnt

Whether you’re saying you learned something or learnt something, you’re talking about the same thing—the process of finding out, acquiring, or retaining knowledge or information. The only difference is that the way you spell it says something about where you’re from. Learnt and learned are both used as the past participle and past tense of the verb to learn. Learned is the generally accepted way of spelling it in the United States and Canada, while the rest of the English-speaking world seems to prefer learnt for now.

Why for now? The American English tendency toward making irregular verbs into regular ones has started influencing British English, which is why the -ed variant is becoming increasingly used around the world. Soon learned might be the most common form everywhere.

Examples

Here are some examples of learned and learnt from around the world:

“Ackerman has learned from user feedback that many of his listeners fall asleep during the twenty-minute introduction, and I’m usually one of them.” —The New Yorker

“CBC News has also learned a number of Conservative MPs will be called to testify by the Crown.” —CBC

“But, sometimes, these ‘agents’ learn to override this, they say, giving an example of a 2013 AI taught to play Tetris that learnt to pause a game forever to avoid losing.” —BBC

The Exception: When Learned Is the Only Option

No matter where you live, sometimes learned is the only correct form to use—it’s when you’re writing the adjective learned. In that case, you can’t use learnt and you have to pronounce the word as two syllables: LER-ned. Use this adjective when you want to say that someone has a lot of knowledge or education: “The girl with the very ordinary education became, in the words of her daughter, Sue, a ‘very learned’ woman.” —The Sydney Morning Herald “You’re welcome, Most learned reverend sir, into our kingdom: Use us and it.” —William Shakespeare, Henry VIII In American English, learned is the prevalent past tense form of learn. In other varieties of English, learnt is dominant. Because of the strong influence of American English, learned is increasing in popularity. Do you think that learnt will disappear completely one day?

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Capitalization: Periods and Events

Specific periods, eras, historical events, etc.: these should all be capitalized as proper nouns. Why? Since there are many periods, eras, wars, etc., the capital will differentiate the specific from the common. Consider the examples below:

Most of the World War I veterans are now deceased.

In the Middle Ages, poor hygiene was partly responsible for the spreading of bubonic plague.

The McCarthy Era inspired Arthur Miller to write The Crucible.

Roman Britain is the setting for the Minimus comic books.

Middle school students often enjoy studying the social changes that took place in the Roaring Twenties.

However, centuries—and the numbers before them—are not capitalized. See the examples below for an illustration of this rule:

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, England blossomed into an empire.

In the eighteen hundreds, the world saw great technological advancement.

25 Homophones That Most Spell-Checkers Won’t Catch

Spell-checkers have come a long way since a West Coast beach boy with an FBI record invented the first prototype at MIT in the 1960s. Nowadays, the überhelpful technology is not only ubiquitous in all word processors, quietly creating more error-free writing around the world, it also exists online, where it can point out mistakes in real time while we write emails or post on social media.

But while spell-checkers’ ability to catch slipups and understand context has evolved tremendously, most of these programs still struggle to identify homophones, those pesky words that sound the same but carry different meanings and, often, different spellings.

While Grammarly has algorithms that will help you correct all of these common mix-ups, there’s no substitute for the old noggin. So next time you’re writing, be sure to put on your thinking cap and look out for these homophones that most spell checkers won’t catch.

A while/Awhile

It had been a while since the long-lost lovers had seen each other, but their passion was still so true they didn’t mind waiting awhile for their fast-approaching reunion.

Accept/Except

Everyone except Christopher, who has already discovered the truth, needs to accept the fact that the world is not flat.

Affect/Effect

The technicians didn’t realize that the special effect that creepily breathed down viewers necks would affect audience members so deeply. People ran out of the theater screaming.

Aide/Aid

The teacher’s aide was the first to arrive at school that day. So when the tornado hit, she gave as much aid to the kids as possible.

Aloud/Allowed

After breaking the television set he wasn’t allowed to touch, Bart had to repeat this phrase aloud 1,000 times: I will not replace the television dials with marshmallows.

Anytime/Any time

Call anytime! Actually, scratch that. Call me at any time after 5:00 p.m.

Bizarre/Bazaar

The strange, old-fashioned bazaar featured a freak show made up of bizarre and mysterious people.

Capital/Capitol

The protesters left their own state capitals to converge on the Capitol building in Washington, DC, and rally for their cause.

Cite/Site/Sight

The site of the excavation came into sight as they emerged from the tunnel. If the bones were in fact dinosaur bones, then scientists would need to cite the analysis taken from this discovery in every paleontology research paper for the next hundred years.

Compliment/Complement

The winemaker received compliment after compliment for her incredible pairing. Each selected dish seemed the perfect complement to the chosen vintages.

Conscience/Conscious

My conscience plagues me most when I’m sleeping. Then, when I wake up, I become conscious of the guilt I’m feeling for my actions.

Desert/Dessert

If only this hot, sandy desert were made of dessert. Then I could simply eat my way out of it.

Elude/Allude

If you’re going to allude to your diamond heist so casually in conversation, you should prepare to elude the authorities, who will most likely find out about the theft.

Ensure/Insure

It seems strange that in order to ensure my son can receive medical treatment, I need to insure him with the healthcare company on the day of his birth.

Every day/Everyday

Just because the office attire is everyday wear doesn’t mean you should wear the same clothes every day.

Formerly/Formally

Formerly a Buddhist monk clothed only in a tunic, he was confused by the need to dress formally, in a shirt and tie, for work.

Guerilla/Gorilla

The paramilitary forces had a new tactic; they were going to use actual gorillas as foot soldiers in their guerilla warfare.

Led/Lead,

He led them through the dangerous forest of giant spiders with only a headlamp and a lead pipe. As the lead scout, he needed to be brave and fearless even though he felt incredibly frightened.

One/Won

She won the costumed thumb war competition by one measly point.

Pedal/Peddle

If you want to peddle stolen goods to innocent people, you’d better be prepared to pedal your bike as fast as you can away from the town when you’re done.

Pore/Pour

If you pore over your schoolbooks with the same discipline that you apply to gaming, I won’t be forced to pour this macaroni over your head.

Premier/Premiere

The premier of Switzerland eagerly awaited the premiere of the new production of the Sound of Music. The woman cast as Maria was the country’s premier actress.

Principle/Principal

School principals should be people of principle. Their behavior and attitude should, in principle, be an example to all students.

Reign/Rein

Take the reins and lead the horse as if you’re ruling a kingdom and your reign has lasted five decades.

Weather/Whether

Who cares about the weather? We’re going to have a good time regardless of whether it’s raining, snowing, or glowing.

Are you confused by one of these examples? Let us know in the comment section below or via our Facebook or Twitter feeds and we’ll try our best to give you an explanation that makes sense.

Separable and Inseparable Phrasal Verbs

A phrasal verb is a verb combined with a preposition or adverb (or both) that means something different from each of the words that make up the verb. There are two types of phrasal verbs. Separable phrasal verbs can be broken up by other words, while inseparable phrasal verbs cannot be separated by other words.

Separable Phrasal Verbs

You can insert other words into the middle of a separable phrasal verb. Consider the following example, using the phrasal verb take back:

I need to take back the shirt I lent you.

Where’s that shirt I lent you? I need to take it back.

Inseparable Phrasal Verbs

Inseparable phrasal verbs can be transitive (i.e., they can take a direct object), but you can’t insert that direct object into the middle of the phrasal verb. In other words, they can’t be separated, thus their name. Consider the following examples:

If you focus your education solely on one area, you’ll have nothing to fall back on if you change your mind.

Each child should have at least one older child to look up to.

What does i.e. stand for? It stands for id est, or that is.

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