The computer era has made the written speech more important than oral. Accordingly, the importance of grammar grows too. Just literacy isn’t enough: one needs to write and spell correctly and use the right words. Can you trust software with it? Yes, you can. And there is more to it than built-in spellers in Word or Google Docs.
Today’s spell-checking services are capable of more than just comparing single words to their dictionaries. They know of styles, they offer large thesauri, and they are able to learn from user data. Let’s take a look at the most popular spell-checkers of 2022.
Grammarly
The spell checker of choice, Grammarly is ubiquitous. It is available as a website, as a mobile app, and as a browser extension. You can even connect it to your Microsoft Office instance and benefit from spellchecking just as you type your text. On mobiles, it works as a keyboard extension, so it functions in any app at all.
This Ukrainian-founded service has earned such a reputation that now it’s the default grammar service and spellchecker in many organizations. It’s way more helpful than the built-in spell checkers of MS Word and Google Docs (indeed, all on our list are).
Ginger
An intelligent contextual spellchecker exists in the most possible forms. Mobile and desktop apps, extensions for Word and Outlook, browser extensions, and the web version are available to check whether your texts are correctly written.
Ginger Spellchecker is just a part of a more complex solution. It also features an online document converter and a decent bit of theory, so its users can understand better how languages function.
WhiteSmoke
While WhiteSmoke has everything a good spellchecker needs, it has one more superpower: it’s a polyglot in its kin. Currently, it supports translations between over 50 languages and applies its spell and grammar abilities to each of them (though results may vary). It’s available for desktop and mobile platforms.
It’s a great option if you know several languages decently but not perfectly, and you have to create texts in these languages. While you can write your copy yourself, the service will polish your results and correct mistakes you may miss. Or even make suggestions that are so far beyond your knowledge.
Correct Me
Old-school spellcheckers just compared the words to their vocabulary base. They could do nothing if you used an existing word wrongly. Correct Me applies a much more intelligent approach. Along with a spelling checker, it has a dictionary and a thesaurus that suggests synonyms if necessary. The service uses machine learning to perfect its suggestions.
It supports dozens of languages and regional variants: three of German, four of Portuguese, eleven of English, and so on. If that’s your job, Correct Me is a worthy tool. Though with the free version you are limited to 500 words per check, it is mostly enough for emails and social media posts.
ProWritingAid
This is more than just a spell-checker: as the name suggests, the tool is designed for professional writers. The developers say it’s meant to improve the writing style, and it can already boast an audience of millions. ProWritingAid does good both your formal writing quality and your verbal artistry. So, it is not only meant to make your texts correct: it’s meant to make your texts shine.
It's quite an expensive tool, probably the most expensive on our list. Yet it’s advertised as the most professional and advanced, and it has tools no one else offers.
Come Together Write Now
So, which is your favorite spell-checking service? Have you ever seen these services find a bug that you have missed? Or any funny suggestions? If you are using it for years, do you see any improvements? Share your impressions in the comments!
