Why is the spellchecker in Firefox so abysmal?
from shalafi@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world on 08 Aug 2025 20:21
https://lemmy.world/post/34156056
from shalafi@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world on 08 Aug 2025 20:21
https://lemmy.world/post/34156056
Even the earliest spell checkers were better! I write a lot on here to keep my sanity and several times a day I’m sure my spelling is correct but it gets flagged. About 6 of 7 times, I was right to begin with. Sigh. “Add to Dictionary”
Hadn’t been on Firefox for well over a decade and the Chrome engine turning to crap brought me home. Is there something I should add to fix this? Chrome was nearly flawless, as is every word processor out there. Just can’t get my head around how awful Firefox is at spell check, feel I must must be doing something wrong.
#nostupidquestions
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I don’t think so, I have the exact same experience. Pretty ordinary words are unknown, and simple spelling mistakes/typos often have very bad suggestions, so you have to correct manually.
This is the greatest weakness of Firefox IMO, if someone has a suggestion, it would be extremely nice.
Self-hosted LanguageTool
Such as?
The tool is literally named LanguageTool and has the option to self host (see tthe development section).
Wild, I don’t think I’ve ever paid the slightest attention to my browser’s spell checker. I didn’t even realize that it could autocorrect.
It doesn’t autocorrect, but with a spelling error you can right click and use a suggestion. But if all suggestions are wrong, you have to correct manually.
Total shot in the dark,
I had this problem for a while. It turns out the whole time my firefox was set to a different dialect of english (British) lol. I think it may have been set that way by default because of Ubuntu being headquartered in the UK lol
My spellcheck seems to be working fine these days though, could you list some examples of common words that you’ve had to add to the dictionary? I can check how mine responds when I get home
Only example top of mind was “softshell” as in the turtle. It’s also a type of clothing. Firefox disagrees.
iOS doesn’t agree either and autocorrects to “soft shell” with a space
Android (or maybe it's Gboard) wants to correct its to it's every time. Context be damned.
Firefox has spell check dictionaries available on the extensions page.
It’s even got an Australian one, with Australian slang and swears. It’s amazing.
Tried one I found. Let us see!
I know three languages:
Russian - Native
English - Shitty fluent (learned on the internet)
Danish - Basic. I have a B2 cert, but it’s not B2
My system is in English, I work in English, my browser is set to English, and I prefer to translate Danish to English, because the two germanic languages have alot of direct analogs and loans.
Firefox, in right click menu: “I can translate that Danish thing to Russian!” WHY?
I mean, I have Russian keyboard layout, one of three, but why does it look at that.
I love the browser, but this just infuriates me on daily basis
Maybe you have it set to a wrong language?