English homophones
may/Mei
"may" is a verb; "Mei" 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: "may" arrives as a verb, while "Mei" is a name. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "may" is 3 letters, "Mei" is 3; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across may, Mei: m. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
may
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV
Inventory amy · private ay
Mei
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV
Inventory eim · private ei
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "may" when you mean: To be strong; to have power (over).
- Write "Mei" when you mean: A female given name from Mandarin.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (may, Mei). Here's where to go from here.
- "may" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #110 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: monte · Monty. 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.