Check with LanguageTool

QA → 📝 Check with LanguageTool… checks the target text of every segment for grammar, spelling and style mistakes with LanguageTool. LanguageTool is particularly good at German and Dutch grammar, and catches grammar mistakes that a spellchecker can’t.

It checks when you ask it to and lists what it finds. It does not underline mistakes as you type – that is what Spellcheck is for.

Public service or your own server

The Server box at the top of the LanguageTool window decides where your text is checked. Pick one of the two addresses in the list, or type your own:

Server	What it means
https://api.languagetool.org (default)	LanguageTool’s free public service. No setup needed, but your text goes to LanguageTool’s servers, and it allows about 20 checks a minute.
http://localhost:8081	A LanguageTool server running on your own computer. Free, no limits, and the text never leaves your machine.

The address you last checked with is remembered for next time.

What’s sent, and privacy

• Only the target text is sent, one request for many segments at a time. Source text, comments and project details are not sent. Segments with no translation yet are skipped.
• The text is sent as it appears in the target cell, inline tags included.
• With the public service, that text is processed on LanguageTool’s servers. A line under the Server box reminds you of this. For confidential work (or anything your client’s NDA covers), use your own server instead: the note then changes to “Using your own LanguageTool server – the text stays there.”
• If you have set up a proxy under Settings → AI Settings → 🌐 HTTP Proxy Settings, checks go through it, except for a server on localhost or 127.0.0.1.

Running your own LanguageTool server

LanguageTool is open source, and its server runs anywhere Java does. Supervertaler doesn’t install or start it for you. Download LanguageTool, start its HTTP server, for example with

java -cp languagetool-server.jar org.languagetool.server.HTTPServer --port 8081

and enter http://localhost:8081 (or whatever address and port you used) in the Server box. LanguageTool’s own documentation explains the options.

The public service’s limits

The free public service allows about 20 checks a minute and limits the size of each one. Supervertaler sends many segments per request and spaces the requests out automatically, so a large project simply takes a while. If the limit is reached anyway, you’re told so: wait a minute and try again, or use your own server.

Language

The Language box is filled in from the project’s target language, as a LanguageTool code such as nl, de-DE or en-GB. You can change it for one check, for example to nl-BE or de-CH, or type auto to let LanguageTool work it out. The next time you open the window from the QA menu it starts from the project’s language again.

Tip

LanguageTool needs a regional variant to check spelling in some languages, so a plain project language is filled in with a default: English becomes en-US, German de-DE, Portuguese pt-PT. If your project’s target is plain “English” and you write British English, change the box to en-GB.

LanguageTool supports many languages, but not all of them. For a language it doesn’t support, the check stops with the server’s error message.

Running a check

1. Choose QA → 📝 Check with LanguageTool….
2. Check the Server and Language boxes.
3. Click ▶ Check target segments.

A progress bar shows how far it has got, and Cancel stops a long check; the findings so far are kept, marked “(stopped early)”. The window stays open while you work in the grid.

Working through the findings

Each finding is one row:

Column	What it shows
Segment	The segment number
Issue	LanguageTool’s explanation, with its category in brackets. Hover over it to see the rule’s ID.
Found	The flagged words
Suggestions	Up to five suggestions, separated by vertical bars (or – when there are none)
Context	The text around the flagged words, which are shown in [brackets]

What you can do with a finding:

• Double-click it to go to its segment in the grid.
• Right-click it and choose Replace with “…” to use any of the suggestions, or Go to segment or Ignore.
• Select it and click ✔ Apply first suggestion to use the first suggestion.
• Select it and click Ignore to remove it from the list.

Applying a suggestion changes the target text straight away, and Ctrl+Z undoes it. The segment keeps its status. If you have edited the segment since the check and the flagged words are no longer there, nothing is changed and you’re asked to run the check again.

Ignore only removes the finding from this list; it will be found again the next time you run the check.

Related

• Spellcheck – red underlines as you type
• QA Checks – your own saved checks, and tags & codes
• AI Proofreading – a review of meaning, terminology and style by an AI model