When we are talking about computing, a spell checker (or spell check) is an application program that flags words in a document which may not be spelled in a correct way. However, when a word which is not within the dictionary is encountered most spell checkers provide an option to add that word to a list of known exceptions that should not be flagged. Spell checkers may be stand – alone capable of operating on a block of text, or as part of a larger application, such as a word processor, email client, electronic dictionary, or search engine.
Appart from that, there are other kind of checkers, such us grammar checkers. These ones are supoosed to works as normal spell checkers. Those are, however, some negative points of them:
There are many common grammar errors that computer software struggles to find. For example, one recent study comparing the effectiveness of common grammar checkers found that these programs will typically miss the following errors:
- No comma after an introductory element in a sentence
- Missing preposition
- Comma splice
- No comma in a compound sentence
- Vague pronoun references
- Tense shift
- Incorrect use of the possessive apostrophe
- Pronoun agreement error
- Run-on sentence
- Sentence fragment
- Spell checker. (2009, June 5). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:10, June 19, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spell_checker&oldid=294623136
- About grammar checerks. In Free Online Grammar Checker. Retrieved 14:20, June 19, 2009, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/dictionary-articles/free-online-grammar.html
Moreover, simple spell checkers operate on individual words by comparing each of them with the words which appear on the dictionary, possibly performing stemming on the word. If the word is not found, it is considered as an error, and an attempt may be made to suggest a word that was likely to have been intended.
