English homophones
Lao/Lau
"Lao" is a noun; "Lau" is a name - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "Lao" arrives as a noun, while "Lau" is a name. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Single-letter fork: "Lao" keeps o, "Lau" writes u at letter 3.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across Lao, Lau: al. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
Lao
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV
Inventory alo · private o
Lau
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV
Inventory alu · private u
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "Lao" when you mean: A Tai ethnic group native to Southeast Asia.
- Write "Lau" when you mean: A surname from Chinese.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (Lao, Lau). Here's where to go from here.
- "Lao" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #20,406 in English). Full entry
- Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
- Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: love · luv. Nearby cluster
- Grammar often disambiguates this cluster, match the meaning to the part of speech before picking a spelling. Pick by meaning
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.