Spellcheck

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

For grammar and style as well as spelling, you can also check the translation with LanguageTool.

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: click the 📝 Spellcheck button above the grid and choose ℹ️ Spellcheck Info from its menu.

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 manage the whole list in 📖 Manage Custom Dictionary…, in the menu of the 📝 Spellcheck button above the grid

Custom words are stored permanently and apply to all languages. Case doesn’t matter: the list is stored in lower case.

Managing the list

📖 Manage Custom Dictionary… opens the list as plain text, one word per line, which you can edit directly. The buttons above it help with bigger changes (from v1.10.372):

Button	What it does
📥 Import…	Adds the words from a text file with one word per line, or from a Hunspell .dic file. The word count on the first line of a .dic file and the /FLAGS after each word are dealt with for you, and words already in your list are not added twice.
📤 Export…	Saves your list as a text file, for example to back it up or share it with a colleague.
🔤 Sort & remove duplicates	Sorts the list alphabetically and removes words that appear more than once.
📂 Open folder	Opens the folder where the list is kept, as custom_words.txt.

The line under the list shows how many words it holds, and how many duplicates will be merged when you save.

Note

Nothing is saved until you click 💾 Save. Cancel closes the dialog without keeping your changes, including any words you imported.

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