English contains many homophones: words which are pronounced the same but mean different things. One pair of spellings that I’ve seen a couple of Russian speakers make mistakes with recently is principal and principle, so let’s look at the variety of meanings they have.
Principal is often met as an adjective meaning the main or first thing in order of importance, as in, for example, the sentence: my principal hobby is reading. However, you may also see it as a noun in legal writing where, depending on the context, it may mean:
- an amount of money that has been lent and on which interest is paid (e.g. mortgages are often structured so that then borrower largely pays off the interest first and only then the principal);
- a person on whose behalf someone else acts as an agent (e.g. an agency relationship is characterised by an agent being able to enter into contracts on behalf of the principal);
It can also refer to the head of a school or other educational institution, and to the most senior instrumentalist in a section of an orchestra.
Principle usually means standards of conduct (especially when used in the plural), or a truth that serves as a basis for a belief or theory. For example, you could say that it is against my principles to allow my department’s employees to produce shoddy work, or trial by jury is a key principle of our criminal justice system.
These usages give rise to phrases such as a man/woman of principle (implying that they are honourable), a matter of principle (an issue where standards of conduct are at stake), on principle (as a result of a person’s adherence to their own standards of conduct – e.g. to resign on principle) and in principle (as a general idea or plan, though the details have not yet been worked through).
