Spell checker won't recognise american spellings

paperback · 03-26-2025, 06:08 AM

Calibre 7.26 / Linux Mint 21

Even when set to the American dictionary, Calibre won't recognise american spellings; even common words such as honor, fulfil. It seems to be using Br. En. as a reference instead.

kovidgoyal · 03-26-2025, 06:12 AM

Yes it will. You have either not set the american english dictionary as the preferred variant for english or the book you are spell checking defines its language an en-GB or similar.

enuddleyarbl · 03-26-2025, 08:02 AM

In the Editor, at the top of each file, there should be something like this:

Code:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:epub="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops" lang="en" xml:lang="en">

Make sure it's not lang="en-gb" (<- fixed -- thanks @DrChiper).

Also, check the text, itself, for "lang=". There might be bits of text designated as being in a different language.

paperback · 03-28-2025, 07:37 AM

You're right. I hadn't taken into account the html language setting.

Two questions: (1) If there is no language setting, what does the language default to: (2) if the setting is xml:lang="en" what variant does the dictionary use?

enuddleyarbl · 03-28-2025, 08:03 AM

I seem to remember that when I didn't add those "lang=" entries to the html line, my dictionary defaulted to American English. Inside the editor, checking Edit > Preferences > Editor Settings > Manage Spelling Dictionaries, I confirmed that my default dictionary for English is United States. According to the bottom of the blurb to the right of the dictionaries: "When a book specifies its language as a plain language, without any country variant, the default variant you choose here will be used."

Is your default English dictionary still the United States one?

DrChiper · 03-31-2025, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

Make sure it's not lang="en-br"

Ehm, en-br does not exist; I guess you mean en-GB?

enuddleyarbl · 03-31-2025, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrChiper

Ehm, en-br does not exist; I guess you mean en-GB?

Ack! I don't know what's wrong with my brain. I can't believe I did that again. Yes. en-gb. I've edited that mistake out of my earlier post. Thanks for catching it.

DrChiper · 03-31-2025, 01:35 PM

You're welcome. I used to use en-UK and was surprised it didn't work as expected. Apparently choosing a none existing ISO language code defaults to "en".
Perhaps a check for valid language code can be made in the editor? It might help to avoid frustrations when things do not seem to work out as expected.

Quoth · 04-02-2025, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrChiper

…
I used to use en-UK and was surprised it didn't work as expected. Apparently choosing a none existing ISO language code defaults to "en".
…

Ukrainian uk, so en-UK doesn't work.
The valid list:
https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_language_codes.asp

The web TLD of uk is a historic mistake, should be gb. See GBP = Sterling, GB on car licence plates, etc.
It's The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It was purely Great Britain when England and Scotland were joined (Wales and Cornwall had been eaten earlier), then The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1921 approximately. They seriously considered reverting to just Great Britain in 1922, but made a sop to N.I. Unionists. They considered again reverting to Great Britain after 2016, maybe to scare the Unionists.
Lesser Britain is of course Brittany in France.
The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are not part of the UK, though under the Crown. Gibraltar is technically a colony that can never join the UK or get independance, the only other status possible is return to Spain (Treaty of Utrecht).

So en-GB, not en-UK as English isn't a major language in Ukraine.

Malta and Ireland use English (officially), but AFAIK, the en-gb would be best selection for them.

The "en" on its own may be interpreted as "en-US"
Here are the country codes: https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_country_codes.asp
US of A = US
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland = GB
Ireland = IE, but as the variant of English written is almost the same as across the Irish Sea, "en-GB" for English, not "en-IE" and "ga" for Gaelic (Irish Language).
Similarly for Malta, "mt" is for Maltese and "en-GB" for the English, not "en-MT"

See also https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/en-001.html "World English"

Major English variations are USA, British, Canada, South Africa, Australia and India. I've no idea how well some are supported.
British English is likely fine for Kenya. Note that India and Kenya have many native languages hence the success of English. So has South Africa and it also has Afrikaans which is derived from Dutch.

There are regional variations for French (spoken in Canada, Switzerland, Belgium and parts of Africa, maybe still in USA) and German (spoken in Alsace, Switzerland, Belgium and Austria).

Portuguese in Portugal and Brazil differs.

Spanish differs by country, and Spain has multiple native languages.

Don't EVER use National Flags if you are doing websites or menus for Language selection.

DrChiper · 04-03-2025, 05:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

Ukrainian uk, so en-UK doesn't work.

I know ... now, not when I started years ago. But it is a common mistake as one regards the URL usage www.<something>.co.uk which most of us mere mortals see. One quickly thinks oh, yes, UK, hence en-UK.
But now we know better

paperback · 04-03-2025, 06:31 AM

It seems that the spellchecker follows the English setting (en-us, en-gb etc.) in the .opf file, and this overrides any user preference in Help > Preferences.

To get the editor to follow the user preference (in Help > Preferences), AFAICS, you have to set the language to "en" in the .opf file.

Quoth · 04-03-2025, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrChiper

I know ... now, not when I started years ago. But it is a common mistake as one regards the URL usage www.<something>.co.uk which most of us mere mortals see. One quickly thinks oh, yes, UK, hence en-UK.
But now we know better

1. It should be .co.gb
2. Domains and IPs should be managed by ITU, which dates from 19th C. and now under UN. They deal with every other sort of communications. It's totally bizarre that the USA completely controls such an International resource.

Quoth · 04-03-2025, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paperback

It seems that the spellchecker follows the English setting (en-us, en-gb etc.) in the .opf file, and this overrides any user preference in Help > Preferences.

To get the editor to follow the user preference (in Help > Preferences), AFAICS, you have to set the language to "en" in the .opf file.

Of course it follows what is in the ebook. It's not just the opf file. A span can have lang="en-gb", or de, or ga etc.
A book can have more than one language and the author/publisher decides what the default should be. Be wary of changing it unless it's been obviously set wrong!

03-26-2025, 06:08 AM	#1
paperback Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2022 Device: None	Spell checker won't recognise american spellings Calibre 7.26 / Linux Mint 21 Even when set to the American dictionary, Calibre won't recognise american spellings; even common words such as honor, fulfil. It seems to be using Br. En. as a reference instead.

03-26-2025, 08:02 AM	#3
enuddleyarbl Guru Posts: 776 Karma: 1538394 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Forma	In the Editor, at the top of each file, there should be something like this: Code: <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:epub="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> Make sure it's not lang="en-gb" (<- fixed -- thanks @DrChiper). Also, check the text, itself, for "lang=". There might be bits of text designated as being in a different language. Last edited by enuddleyarbl; 03-31-2025 at 08:14 AM.

04-03-2025, 06:31 AM	#11
paperback Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2022 Device: None	It seems that the spellchecker follows the English setting (en-us, en-gb etc.) in the .opf file, and this overrides any user preference in Help > Preferences. To get the editor to follow the user preference (in Help > Preferences), AFAICS, you have to set the language to "en" in the .opf file. Last edited by paperback; 04-03-2025 at 06:46 AM.

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03-26-2025, 06:12 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,345 Karma: 27182818 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Yes it will. You have either not set the american english dictionary as the preferred variant for english or the book you are spell checking defines its language an en-GB or similar.

03-28-2025, 07:37 AM	#4
paperback Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2022 Device: None	You're right. I hadn't taken into account the html language setting. Two questions: (1) If there is no language setting, what does the language default to: (2) if the setting is xml:lang="en" what variant does the dictionary use?

03-28-2025, 08:03 AM	#5
enuddleyarbl Guru Posts: 776 Karma: 1538394 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Forma	I seem to remember that when I didn't add those "lang=" entries to the html line, my dictionary defaulted to American English. Inside the editor, checking Edit > Preferences > Editor Settings > Manage Spelling Dictionaries, I confirmed that my default dictionary for English is United States. According to the bottom of the blurb to the right of the dictionaries: "When a book specifies its language as a plain language, without any country variant, the default variant you choose here will be used." Is your default English dictionary still the United States one?

03-31-2025, 01:35 PM	#8
DrChiper Bookish Posts: 1,017 Karma: 2003162 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: PC, t1, t2, t3, Clara BW, Clara HD, Libra 2, Libra Color, Nxtpaper 11	You're welcome. I used to use en-UK and was surprised it didn't work as expected. Apparently choosing a none existing ISO language code defaults to "en". Perhaps a check for valid language code can be made in the editor? It might help to avoid frustrations when things do not seem to work out as expected.

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