dsrtao: dsr as a LEGO minifig (Default)
[personal profile] dsrtao
principles. principals. different. not same.

principles: ideals, objects of faith, premises. A principle is almost always an idea.

principals: primary movers, people who matter, things which start other things. A principal is almost always a person, sometimes an object.

Work from first principles. Hold fast to your principles. The principle reason for eating is to obtain energy. The principles of science are explainable as rules for gathering Bayesian evidence.

The head of the school is called the principal. The lead elephant is the principal of the herd. The principal support is that big heavy block.

Teachers teach principles; principals give orders to teachers.

(no subject)

Date: 2011-08-26 05:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] metahacker.livejournal.com
What about principal principles? Or principled principals?

The rage-inducing one for me is affect/effect/effect/affect. Cause the damn verbs and nouns are more or less backward from each other. (And you almost never mean affect as a noun, unless you're me.)

(no subject)

Date: 2011-08-26 09:38 pm (UTC)
cellio: (avatar-face)
From: [personal profile] cellio
Bravo.

For an encore, feel like tackling populace/populous? I am surprised by how many people get this one wrong...

(no subject)

Date: 2011-08-26 10:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] matildalucet.livejournal.com
Viola does not equal voila, which should not be spelled wah-lah!!! (All those exclamation marks are apparently part of the wrong spelling.) Maybe I should save that rant for a bad day in my own LJ.

How about definitely vs. defiantly? When that one goes wrong, I find myself wondering about the writer's mental state.

(no subject)

Date: 2011-08-27 03:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] the-nita.livejournal.com
"Thank you for trialling our service".

What makes me more enraged is I have to write that in an email to clients.

Because the marketing dude knows better what people understand.

/headdesk at speed.

(no subject)

Date: 2011-08-27 12:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] metageek.livejournal.com
Except it's "principal reason". "Principle" is never an adjective.
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