Principal / Principle

A pet peeve of mine is when people use the wrong words in writing. There are a couple that I've noticed happening more and more, and in theater, this is one of them. People use principal and principle interchangeably, which they're not. Each word means something completely different. It's amazing the number of times that I've read something about the "principles" of a show recently. So I'm going on a one-man crusade (hopefully a one-board crusade?) to correct this.

Principal: usually an adjective meaning "main", but it may also be a noun indicating the individual who runs a school, a key person in a business enterprise, or a deposit that draws interest.

Principle: a noun meaning "a generalization or law"

Do you want to join my crusade? What words have you noticed being used incorrectly? (and I don't mean IM shorthand or just overall bad grammar...)

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Getting me started on this topic could be a disaster in waiting, but I'll bite...

One of my BIGGEST pet peeves is people using the word "fortuitous" to mean "fortunate". IT DOES NOT. Fortuitous simply means random, accidental, by chance. It can be good, bad, or indifferent. Yes, it was fortuitous that you won the lottery, and it also happens to be fortunate.

It was also fortuitous that you tripped on the *one* cable laying in the middle of the floor and broke your kneecap. However, it was not fortunate.

More to come :) (Maybe I should do a daily grammar/vocabulary rant?)

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Updated On: 3/8/05 at 12:11 PM

rant away jailyard!

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I'm not even going to touch the your/you're; there/their/they're thing...it's been done to death and people will just never get it. Ever.

How about the FLAGRANT and clearly intentional shunning of my current favorite word in the English language, "dipsomaniac"? Obviously, someone at the OED hates drunk people and doesn't want us to have a pretty word for ourselves anymore!

I'm writing a letter, dammit.

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It disgusts me to no end when I see GROWN ADULTS confusing these three words:

there
their
they're

I remember saying to someone, "You can remember THERE because it has 'here' in it, as in a location. You can also remember THEIR because it has 'heir' in it, as in possession." Then, my friend goes, "If they don't know how to spell THEIR, they probably don't even know what an heir IS."

You're so hot when you double post. Let's have babies.

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Maybe we should take this someplace else, jailyardguy...

How does your place sound?

That is just absolute torture!

Isn't there anything else I can do to make it up to you??

Okay, maybe we REALLY should take this elsewhere...

a pet peeve of mine is....the saying 'pet peeve.'

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Theatre and Theater.

That is all.

Doxy, what would you say is the difference between theatre and theater, besides regionality?

I used to "do" my friends' papers in college when they had to take their required English courses. I so hate checking other people's grammar but I did it so much that I came to enjoy time with the university paper and a little pen. I started to wonder what their editors did there...
oh, by the way, you know how people always end sentences with ellipses (...)? If you end a sentence with one, it's actually supposed to be four of them....

Wow BwaySinger. I never knew I had been misusing those ellipses.

And theater is the building, theatre is what happens in the building...or so I believe...in a very short description.

I did a good job, and I did it well.

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