Just for holiday fun, here's a tip that is particularly useful now (and perhaps not at all during the rest of the year).
Claus = n. (var. Klaus) the German or Danish form of the masculine name Nicholas clause = n. a grammatical structure containing a subject and a verb; one specific subset of a writing or discourse, especially a legal documentThus, children are visited by Santa Claus, but the word string "Deck the halls with boughs of holly" is an independent clause.
Sometimes these homonyms are interchanged for a bit of wry humor. A great example is the movie series The Santa Clause. In this case, while clause sounds like the name of Jolly Old Saint Nick, it actually refers to the binding agreement Tim Allen's character unwittingly enters. This clever title is a notable exception, though. Most often the use of clause for Claus is merely an innocent mistake. All those ads that promote sales that let a person "play Santa Clause" are simply in need of an editor's eye.
One way to remember which is which is to consider the complexity of the concepts behind the words. The idea of a merry, generous foreign visitor is delightful yet easy to comprehend--as is the silent-e-less spelling Claus. Grammar and legal language, on the other hand, sometimes can be quite convoluted and difficult. Perhaps the additional e at the end of clause can be thought to signify additional detail or brainwork.
© 2007 by AnnaLisa Michalski