Check Spelling And Grammar On Mac - Apple Support

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In many macOS apps, you can check your writing for spelling mistakes, automatically correct mistakes as you type, and get inline predictions that complete the word or phrase you’re typing. You can turn inline predictions and autocorrection on or off as needed.

If Apple Intelligence* is turned on, you can also use Writing Tools to proofread your work. See Use Writing Tools with Apple Intelligence.

Automatically complete words you’re typing

As you type, get inline predictions that finish the word or phrase you’re typing.

  1. Go to the System Settings app on your Mac.

  2. Click Keyboard in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)

    Open Keyboard settings for me

  3. Go to Text Input, then click Edit.

  4. Turn on “Show inline predictive text”, then click Done.

    Note: Inline predictions aren’t available in all languages. See the macOS Feature Availability web page.

  5. As you type in an app, predictions that complete the word or phrase you’re typing appear inline in grey. Press the Space bar to accept a prediction or keep typing to ignore it.

You can also get emoji suggestions and quickly insert them as you type. See Use emoji and symbols.

Automatically correct spelling mistakes

When autocorrection is on, misspelt words are detected and automatically corrected as you type.

  1. Go to the System Settings app on your Mac.

  2. Click Keyboard in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)

    Open Keyboard settings for me

  3. Go to Text Input, then click Edit.

  4. Turn on “Correct spelling automatically”, then click Done.

    Note: To have the first word of a sentence and proper nouns (such as names of people and places) automatically capitalised as you type, turn on “Capitalise words automatically”.

  5. As you type in an app, misspelt words are detected. Do one of the following:

    • Accept suggestions: If there’s only one suggestion, just keep typing to have the word autocorrected. If two or more suggestions are shown, choose one.

    • Ignore suggestions: Press Esc, then continue typing.

      A misspelt word stays underlined in red unless you choose to ignore it or add it to the spelling dictionary. Control-click the word, then choose Ignore Spelling (the word is ignored if it occurs again in the document, but is flagged as misspelt in other documents) or Learn Spelling (the word won’t be flagged as misspelt in any document).

    • Undo autocorrections: An automatically corrected word is briefly indicated by a solid underline. To revert to your original spelling, put the insertion point after the word to show your original spelling, then choose your spelling. You can also Control-click the word, then choose Change Back to [original spelling].

To turn off autocorrection for a specific app, open the app, then choose Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Correct Spelling Automatically (it’s off when a tick isn’t shown).

If an app’s Edit menu doesn’t include a spelling or grammar command, check its settings or menus to see if it has its own spell checker.

Check for spelling and grammar mistakes

In an app on your Mac, do any of the following:

  • Check spelling: Choose Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Check Document Now. The first error is highlighted. To show the next error, press Command-Semicolon (;). To see suggested spellings for a word, Control-click it.

  • Check grammar: Choose Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Check Grammar With Spelling (a tick shows that it’s on). Grammar errors are indicated by a dotted blue underline. Move the pointer over an underlined word to see a description of the problem.

    Note: Grammar checking is not available for every region, country or language. See the macOS Feature Availability web page.

  • Ignore misspellings: Control-click a highlighted word, then choose Ignore Spelling. The word is ignored if it occurs again in the document (it is highlighted in other documents).

  • Add words to the spelling dictionary: Control-click a highlighted word, then choose Learn Spelling. The word won’t be flagged as misspelled in any document.

If you’re checking a long document, it may be easier to use the Spelling and Grammar window. Choose Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar.

Siri: Ask Siri something like, “How do you spell [word]?” Learn how to use Siri.

Change which languages are spell-checked automatically

By default, spelling is checked automatically no matter which language you’re typing on your Mac. You can change which languages are checked automatically.

  1. Go to the System Settings app on your Mac.

  2. Click Keyboard in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)

    Open Keyboard settings for me

  3. Go to Text Input, then click Edit.

  4. Do one of the following:

    • Check spelling for one language: Click the Spelling pop-up menu, then choose the language.

    • Check spelling for multiple languages: Click the Spelling pop-up menu, choose Set Up, select each language to check automatically, then click Done.

See alsoReplace text and punctuation in documents on MacDictionary User Guide Helpful? Yes No Character limit: 250 Please don’t include any personal information in your comment. Maximum character limit is 250. Submit Thanks for your feedback.

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