Why does this happen....spellcheck content

[Shockwave78]

I switched to OSX as my primary a couple years back and I like most things about it. But wtf is going on with Apples spellcheck algorithms or whatnot? I admit I am not the best speller in the world, but some of its recommendations are flat out wack.

Why does OSX constantly say that I am misspelling words and trying to replace them with words that don't even exist in most cases?

For example, this just happened..

Mine - Additional
Apple - Addtional

Its not just OSX either, its on iOS as well it seems. Am I doing something wrong where its adding a misspelled word to the library or something?? Is there a way to reset this library if that's the case?

Lastly, are there any better spellcheckers for OSX to replace the built in one? I have always strayed away from these types of things those as they also say your typing gets sent back to 3rd parties.

 

[chown33]

My first guess is that the Apple spelling system (AppleSpell) was accidentally told to learn the misspelled word "addtional". It then added that word to the local dictionary for your user account, and other parts of the system then sync'ed that dictionary so your iOS device(s) picked it up.

The first thing to do is to tell us what version of the OS is running on your Mac. This is needed because it appears from my searches that the mechanism for unlearning a mistaken spelling may vary.

The way to unlearn a word in earlier OS versions goes something like this:
1. Open a window in TextEdit.app.
2. Type or paste the misspelled word (i.e. "addtional")
3. Right-click the misspelled word.
4. A contextual menu should appear, where one of the items is "Unlearn Spelling" (or something similar).
5. Choose the "Unlearn" item.


In those earlier OS versions, the local dictionary of learned words is located at:

~/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary​

It's a plain text file, in sorted order, with one word per line. You can either delete the entire file, temporarily move or rename it, or edit it to remove the misspelled word(s). Do not change the sorted order, or AppleSpell won't be able to use the file correctly.

After an edit, delete, move, etc. you may need to restart, so the AppleSpell daemon gets restarted.

Here's an article from 2016 with more details:
https://tidbits.com/2016/02/03/how-to-unlearn-misspellings-and-sync-your-user-dictionary-in-os-x/

Because it's from 2016, it may no longer apply to later OS versions.


Later OS versions may have removed the "Unlearn Spelling" item (I'm not in a position to check any of them right now), and you may need to bring up the "Spelling and Grammar" floating window in TextEdit.app.

By the way, the reason for using TextEdit.app is because it relies on AppleSpell, the system service, while other apps such as MS Word have their own spelling system, and some apps don't offer a Learn/Unlearn feature.


It's also conceivable that the builtin spelling dictionary file has become damaged (corrupted), but if that's so, I don't think it would propagate to iOS, mainly because that dictionary isn't sync'ed.