The title of an article in the November 16, 1998, edition of Time by Ursula Sautter includes two views, by Germans, about the invasion of English into the German language and culture.

Some significant parts of the article include the following:

Here is an old proverb: While bryophytic plants are typically encountered as substrata of earthly or mineral matter in concreted state, discrete substrata elements occasionally display a roughly spherical configuration which, in the presence of suitable gravitational and other effects, lends itself to a combined translatory and rotational motion. One notices in such cases an absence of the otherwise typical accretion of bryophyta.

The proverb means: “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”

What was a young man saying to a young woman in the following sesquipedalian?

They shine more rutilent than ligulin—those labial components that surround thy pericranial orifice, wherein denticulations niveous abound!

Commingle them with my equivalents! Let like with like nectareously converge! From the predestined confluence some sempiternal rapture must emerge!

As Willard Espy put it, “After all, he was only asking her for a kiss. Jargon may be useful to hide one’s real thinking, or lack of it, but it can be downright self-defeating if you are trying to persuade someone to do something. A young man learned that when he addressed these words to the maiden he loved, only to be shown the door.”

Both of the foregoing were compiled by Willard R. Espy.

The letters MS refer to two things: One is a debilitating and surprisingly widespread affliction that renders the sufferer barely able to perform the simplest task; the other is a disease. In other words, MS stands for the name of a well-known software company or for the disease Multiple Sclerosis.

Summary of how history has resulted in the development of English continued from the main page of Get Words.

An alphabetized listing of links to groups of English words in action as seen in sentences with short definitions.

Words are being added daily to expand your potential vocabulary for this modern age.

English words that don't mean what they look like as they are often assumed to be.

Before you read this section about mnemonics, please STOP here NOW, and take a “pre-test” over the words that will be discussed. Even if you do well on this test, you may still come back for the presentation. So, please go to (click on) the Mnemonics "Seed" Quiz over -cede, -ceed, -sede words to see how well you can spell words that have the endings that are pronounced “seed”.

How to decide between -cede, -ceed, and -sede.

Problems: Is it supercede, superceed, or supersede? Is it accede or acceed? Is it proceed or preceed, and is it excede or exceed?

First, the results of the principal/principle survey

The spelling of many English words are confusing even to those whose first language is English.

There were 45 per cent of the subscribers on the Focusing on Words Newsletter list who responded to the survey.

• 1. The (principal/principle) reason for this discussion is to improve one’s spelling skills.
  
  Of those responding, 68 per cent chose the right answer (principal).
  
  
• 2. All of us should live by certain moral (principals/principles).
  
  Ninety-nine per cent chose the right answer (principles) in number two.
  
  
• 3. The (principal/principle) character in the play is ill.
  
  In number three, eighty-two per cent chose the right answer (principal).
  
  
• 4. His political (principals/principles) are less than acceptable.
  
  In number four, ninety-seven per cent chose the right answer (principles).
  
  
• 5. As a matter of (principal/principle), he refused to borrow money from anyone.
  
  In number five, ninety-seven per cent chose the right answer (principle).
  
  
• 6. The (principal/principle) invested in that project was $100,000.
  
  Of those participating, eighty-five per cent made the correct choice of (principal) in number six.
  
  
• 7. We must instill into the minds of our youth (principals/principles) of honesty and morality.
  
  Ninety-seven per cent of participants indicated the right answer (principles) in the last number.
  
  

A few words about the use of mnemonic devices that make it easier to remember how to spell certain words correctly.

Although many subscribers had different mnemonic devices for determining which principal/principle to use in a sentence, the best mnemonics to use seem to be “main” for principal and “rule” for principle.

Note the relationship of the “a” in main and principal and the “le” in rule and principle. Always make these relationships and you will always use them correctly.

Mnemonic [nee MAH nik], as in mnemonic device, comes from the Greek element that means, “memory” or “to remember” and refers to a technique that facilitates making the right choices for words that are otherwise confusing.

Whenever you want to make sure you have chosen the correct principal/principle, substitute the words main and rule in place of one or the other principal/principle, to see if it makes sense and when it does; it is certain that you have the right choice. For example, in number one, you could say, “The rule reason for this discussion ....” or say, “The main reason for this discussion ....” and you would logically have to choose main or “principal” because the other choice simply doesn’t make any sense.

So many people have used the mnemonic device of saying, “You spell the principal of the school with pal because he/she is your pal” or something similar to that. I strongly urge that you NOT use this mnemonic because it can be very misleading. It tends to make people think that the use of pal is used only with that particular principal. It is far better to say that the principal of the school is spelled with pal because he/she is the MAIN administrator, teacher, or educator of the school.

Did you notice the erratum in sentence number seven of the survey. Mea culpa. I used “install” instead of “instill into the minds ....”

Congratulations to nine subscribers (out of the 412 who participated) who saw and told me about this error (erratum). If there had been more than one erratum, then I would have had to confess to errata.

Thank you, if you were one of those who contributed to the survey. It was amazing to see that MOST of the participants made no errata in their submissions. I apparently have a VERY knowledgeable list of subscribers!