Deutsch homophones
lac/lack/lag
"lac" is a noun; "lack" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #5 of 483 German groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "lac" arrives as a noun, while "lack" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "lac" then splits - "lac" (3 letters) vs "lack" (4).
- Single-letter fork: "lac" keeps c, "lag" writes g at letter 3.
- Shared stem "la" then splits - "lack" (4 letters) vs "lag" (3).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across lac, lack, lag: al. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
lac
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory acl · private c
lack
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory ackl · private ck
lag
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory agl · private g
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "lac" when you mean: See
- Write "lack" when you mean: 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs lacken
- Write "lag" when you mean: 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs liegen
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- lack ← alck · lacck · lackk · lakc · lcak · llack