It's been awhile since I've posted a grammar lesson. I ran across this premier vs. premiere word pair recently in my own writing so I thought I'd share.
According to Dictionary.com, a premier as a noun is the grand pubah or head honcho of an organization. Some countries refer to the heads of their cabinets as premiers or it can simply mean the chief officer in any organization. As an adjective, it means the "first in rank" or "first in time."
This last meaning is what confused me. I was thinking of the word in terms of the first edition or first show of a series, like on TV. At first, I thought, based on the adjective definition, premier was correct. But it didn't look right and I was justified in my suspicion.
The correct word I needed was premiere, which, according to Dictionary.com, means the first time something is performed or presented to the public. This something can be a person or the performance or presentation itself. It can take the form of a noun, verb, or adjective but all have the same meaning.
An easy way to remember the difference is to simply consider the subject of your writing. If it is a play, movie, book, television show, magazine, or any other item written, performed, or presented to the public for viewing, reading, listening, etc., the correct word is premiere. If you're talking about an officer or government person, it's premier.
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