Spellcheck

Supervertaler includes a powerful spellcheck system that highlights misspellings while you translate, with support for regional language variants.

How It Works

Supervertaler uses a three-tier spellcheck system that automatically selects the best available backend:

Backend	Description	Languages
Hunspell (cyhunspell)	Native C library, best accuracy	Any language with .dic/.aff files
Spylls	Pure Python Hunspell (recommended for Windows)	Bundled: EN, RU, SV + any .dic/.aff files you add
pyspellchecker	Built-in fallback	EN, NL, DE, FR, ES, PT, IT, RU

The system automatically falls back through backends: Hunspell → Spylls → pyspellchecker.

:::note Windows Users: Spylls is automatically used since cyhunspell doesn't compile on Python 3.12+. This works great and supports regional variants! :::

Features

• Red wavy underlines for misspelled words in the translation grid

• Right-click context menu with spelling suggestions

• Add to Dictionary – Save a word permanently

• Ignore – Skip a word for the current session only

• Regional variants – Distinguish between en_US "color" and en_GB "colour"

Language Variants

Supervertaler supports regional language variants. The spellcheck dropdown shows variants like:

• English (US), English (GB), English (AU), English (CA), English (ZA)

• Portuguese (PT), Portuguese (BR)

• Spanish (ES), Spanish (MX), Spanish (AR)

• French (FR), French (CA), French (BE)

• German (DE), German (AT), German (CH)

• Dutch (NL), Dutch (BE)

:::tip Regional spelling works correctly!

• With English (GB): "colour" ✅ correct, "color" ❌ incorrect

• With English (US): "colour" ❌ incorrect, "color" ✅ correct :::

Spellcheck Info Dialog

Access detailed information about your spellcheck setup:

1. Click the 🔤 Spellcheck button in the grid toolbar

2. Or go to View → Spellcheck Info

The dialog shows:

• Current language and backend

• Available languages

• Diagnostic information (which backends are available/initialized)

• Links to download additional dictionaries

• Custom dictionary word count

Adding More Dictionaries

To add spellcheck support for additional languages or variants:

1. Download Hunspell dictionaries (.dic and .aff files) from:

   • hunspell.memoq.com – 70+ languages

   • GitHub: wooorm/dictionaries – 92+ languages

   • LibreOffice Extensions – Rename .oxt to .zip

2. Extract the files – You need both .dic and .aff files (e.g., nl_NL.dic and nl_NL.aff)

3. Place them in the dictionaries folder:

   • Open Supervertaler

   • Go to Spellcheck Info dialog

   • Click "📁 Open Dictionaries Folder"

   • Copy your .dic and .aff files there

   • You can also organize in subfolders (e.g., dictionaries/en/en_GB.dic)

4. Restart Supervertaler – The new language will appear in the dropdown

:::note Spylls bundled dictionaries (EN, RU, SV) are stored inside the spylls pip package, not in your dictionaries folder. Add your own .dic/.aff files to the dictionaries folder to extend available languages. :::

Custom Dictionary

You can add words that Supervertaler should always accept:

• Right-click a "misspelled" word → Add to Dictionary

• Or manually edit user_data/dictionaries/custom_words.txt

Custom words are stored permanently and apply to all languages.

Troubleshooting

Spellcheck not working?

1. Check the language – Make sure the correct language variant is selected

2. Check the backend – Open Spellcheck Info to see which backend is active

3. Missing dictionaries – Some languages require manual dictionary installation

Wrong language variant?

If you need British English but only have US English:

1. Download en_GB.dic and en_GB.aff from one of the dictionary sources

2. Place them in your dictionaries folder

3. Select "English (GB)" from the dropdown

Linux crashes?

On Linux, some Hunspell configurations can cause crashes. Try:

• Installing proper Hunspell dictionaries: sudo apt install hunspell-<lang> (e.g., hunspell-pl for Polish)

• Temporarily disabling spellcheck in Settings → View Settings

• See Linux-Specific Issues for more details

Technical Details

For developers and advanced users:

Project	Description
pyspellchecker	Built-in word frequency spellcheck
spylls	Pure Python Hunspell implementation
Hunspell	Original C/C++ spellcheck library

The spellcheck manager is located in modules/spellcheck_manager.py and provides:

• Automatic backend selection

• Dictionary file detection (including subdirectories)

• Word caching for performance

• Custom dictionary management