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1 *spell.txt* For Vim version 7.0aa. Last change: 2005 Jun 08
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4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
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5
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6
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7 Spell checking *spell*
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8
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9 1. Quick start |spell-quickstart|
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10 2. Generating a spell file |spell-mkspell|
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11 3. Spell file format |spell-file-format|
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12
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13 {Vi does not have any of these commands}
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14
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15 Spell checking is not available when the |+syntax| feature has been disabled
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16 at compile time.
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17
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18 ==============================================================================
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19 1. Quick start *spell-quickstart*
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20
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21 This command switches on spell checking: >
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22
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23 :setlocal spell spelllang=en_us
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24
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25 This switches on the 'spell' option and specifies to check for US English.
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26
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27 The words that are not recognized are highlighted with one of these:
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28 SpellBad word not recognized
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29 SpellRare rare word
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30 SpellLocal wrong spelling for selected region
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31
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32 Vim only checks words for spelling, there is no grammar check.
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33
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34 To search for the next misspelled word:
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35
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36 *]s* *E756*
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37 ]s Move to next misspelled word after the cursor.
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38 A count before the command can be used to repeat.
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39 This uses the @Spell and @NoSpell clusters from syntax
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40 highlighting, see |spell-syntax|.
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41
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42 *[s*
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43 [s Like "]s" but search backwards, find the misspelled
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44 word before the cursor.
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45
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46 *]S*
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47 ]S Like "]s" but only stop at bad words, not at rare
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48 words or words for another region.
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49
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50 *[S*
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51 [S Like "]S" but search backwards.
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52
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53
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54 To add words to your own word list:
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55
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56 *zg*
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57 zg Add word under the cursor as a good word to
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58 'spellfile'. In Visual mode the selected characters
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59 are added as a word (including white space!).
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60
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61 *zw*
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62 zw Add word under the cursor as a wrong (bad) word to
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63 'spellfile'. In Visual mode the selected characters
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64 are added as a word (including white space!).
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65
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66 *:spellg* *:spellgood*
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67 :spellg[ood] {word} Add [word} as a good word to 'spellfile'.
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68
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69 :spellw[rong] {word} Add [word} as a wrong (bad) word to 'spellfile'.
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70
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71 After adding a word to 'spellfile' its associated ".spl" file will
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72 automatically be updated. More details about the 'spellfile' format below
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73 |spell-wordlist-format|.
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74
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75
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76 PERFORMANCE
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77
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78 Note that Vim does on-the-fly spell checking. To make this work fast the
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79 word list is loaded in memory. Thus this uses a lot of memory (1 Mbyte or
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80 more). There might also be a noticeable delay when the word list is loaded,
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81 which happens when 'spelllang' or 'spell' is set. Each word list is only
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82 loaded once, they are not deleted when 'spelllang' is made empty or 'spell' is
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83 reset. When 'encoding' is set the word lists are reloaded, thus you may
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84 notice a delay then too.
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85
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86
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87 REGIONS
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88
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89 A word may be spelled differently in various regions. For example, English
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90 comes in (at least) these variants:
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91
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92 en all regions
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93 en_au Australia
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94 en_ca Canada
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95 en_gb Great Britain
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96 en_nz New Zealand
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97 en_us USA
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98
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99 Words that are not used in one region but are used in another region are
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100 highlighted with |SpellLocal|.
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101
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102 Always use lowercase letters for the language and region names.
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103
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104 When adding a word with |zg| or another command it's always added for all
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105 regions. You can change that by manually editing the 'spellfile'. See
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106 |spell-wordlist-format|.
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107
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108
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109 SPELL FILES
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110
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111 Vim searches for spell files in the "spell" subdirectory of the directories in
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112 'runtimepath'. The name is: LL.EEE.spl, where:
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113 LL the language name
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114 EEE the value of 'encoding'
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115
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116 Only the first file is loaded, the one that is first in 'runtimepath'. If
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117 this succeeds then additionally files with the name LL.EEE.add.spl are loaded.
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118 All the ones that are found are used.
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119
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120 Exceptions:
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121 - Vim uses "latin1" when 'encoding' is "iso-8859-15". The euro sign doesn't
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122 matter for spelling.
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123 - When no spell file for 'encoding' is found "ascii" is tried. This only
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124 works for languages where nearly all words are ASCII, such as English. It
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125 helps when 'encoding' is not "latin1", such as iso-8859-2, and English text
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126 is being edited. For the ".add" files the same name as the found main
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127 spell file is used.
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128
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129 For example, with these values:
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130 'runtimepath' is "~/.vim,/usr/share/vim70,~/.vim/after"
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131 'encoding' is "iso-8859-2"
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132 'spelllang' is "pl"
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133
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134 Vim will look for:
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135 1. ~/.vim/spell/pl.iso-8859-2.spl
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136 2. /usr/share/vim70/spell/pl.iso-8859-2.spl
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137 3. ~/.vim/spell/pl.iso-8859-2.add.spl
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138 4. /usr/share/vim70/spell/pl.iso-8859-2.add.spl
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139 5. ~/.vim/after/spell/pl.iso-8859-2.add.spl
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140
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141 This assumes 1. is not found and 2. is found.
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142
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143 If 'encoding' is "latin1" Vim will look for:
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144 1. ~/.vim/spell/pl.latin1.spl
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145 2. /usr/share/vim70/spell/pl.latin1.spl
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146 3. ~/.vim/after/spell/pl.latin1.spl
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147 4. ~/.vim/spell/pl.ascii.spl
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148 5. /usr/share/vim70/spell/pl.ascii.spl
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149 6. ~/.vim/after/spell/pl.ascii.spl
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150
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151 This assumes none of them are found (Polish doesn't make sense when leaving
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152 out the non-ASCII characters).
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153
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154 Spelling for EBCDIC is currently not supported.
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155
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156 A spell file might not be available in the current 'encoding'. See
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157 |spell-mkspell| about how to create a spell file. Converting a spell file
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158 with "iconv" will NOT work!
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159
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160 *E758* *E759*
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161 When loading a spell file Vim checks that it is properly formatted. If you
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162 get an error the file may be truncated, modified or intended for another Vim
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163 version.
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164
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165
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166 WORDS
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167
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168 Vim uses a fixed method to recognize a word. This is independent of
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169 'iskeyword', so that it also works in help files and for languages that
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170 include characters like '-' in 'iskeyword'. The word characters do depend on
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171 'encoding'.
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172
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173 A word that starts with a digit is always ignored. That includes hex numbers
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174 in the form 0xff and 0XFF.
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175
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176
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177 SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING *spell-syntax*
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178
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179 Files that use syntax highlighting can specify where spell checking should be
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180 done:
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181
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182 1. everywhere default
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183 2. in specific items use "contains=@Spell"
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184 3. everywhere but specific items use "contains=@NoSpell"
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185
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186 For the second method adding the @NoSpell cluster will disable spell checking
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187 again. This can be used, for example, to add @Spell to the comments of a
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188 program, and add @NoSpell for items that shouldn't be checked.
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189
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190 ==============================================================================
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191 2. Generating a spell file *spell-mkspell*
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192
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193 Vim uses a binary file format for spelling. This greatly speeds up loading
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194 the word list and keeps it small.
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195
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196 You can create a Vim spell file from the .aff and .dic files that Myspell
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197 uses. Myspell is used by OpenOffice.org and Mozilla. You should be able to
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198 find them here:
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199 http://lingucomponent.openoffice.org/spell_dic.html
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200 You can also use a plain word list.
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201
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202 :mksp[ell] [-ascii] {outname} {inname} ... *:mksp* *:mkspell*
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203 Generate a Vim spell file word lists. Example: >
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204 :mkspell nl nl_NL.words
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205 <
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206 When {outname} ends in ".spl" it is used as the output
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207 file name. Otherwise it should be a language name,
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208 such as "en". The file written will be
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209 {outname}.{encoding}.spl. {encoding} is the value of
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210 the 'encoding' option.
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211
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212 When the [-ascii] argument is present, words with
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213 non-ascii characters are skipped. The resulting file
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214 ends in "ascii.spl".
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215
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216 The input can be the Myspell format files {inname}.aff
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217 and {inname}.dic. If {inname}.aff does not exist then
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218 {inname} is used as the file name of a plain word
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219 list.
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220
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221 Multiple {inname} arguments can be given to combine
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222 regions into one Vim spell file. Example: >
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223 :mkspell ~/.vim/spell/en /tmp/en_US /tmp/en_CA /tmp/en_AU
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224 < This combines the English word lists for US, CA and AU
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225 into one en.spl file.
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226 Up to eight regions can be combined. *E754* *755*
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227
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228 When the spell file was written all currently used
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229 spell files will be reloaded.
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230
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231 :mksp[ell] [-ascii] {add-name}
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232 Like ":mkspell" above, using {add-name} as the input
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233 file and producing an output file that has ".spl"
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234 appended.
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235
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236 Since you might want to change a Myspell word list for use with Vim the
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237 following procedure is recommended:
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237
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238
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239 1. Obtain the xx_YY.aff and xx_YY.dic files from Myspell.
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240 2. Make a copy of these files to xx_YY.orig.aff and xx_YY.orig.dic.
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241 3. Change the xx_YY.aff and xx_YY.dic files to remove bad words, add missing
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242 words, define word characters with FOL/LOW/UPP, etc. The distributed
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243 "src/spell/*.diff" files can be used.
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244 4. Set 'encoding' to the desired encoding and use |:mkspell| to generate the
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245 Vim spell file.
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246 5. Try out the spell file with ":set spell spelllang=xx_YY".
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247
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248 When the Myspell files are updated you can merge the differences:
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249 1. Obtain the new Myspell files as xx_YY.new.aff and xx_UU.new.dic.
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250 2. Use Vimdiff to see what changed: >
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251 vimdiff xx_YY.orig.dic xx_YY.new.dic
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252 3. Take over the changes you like in xx_YY.dic.
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253 You may also need to change xx_YY.aff.
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254 4. Rename xx_YY.new.dic to xx_YY.orig.dic and xx_YY.new.aff to xx_YY.new.aff.
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255
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256 ==============================================================================
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257 9. Spell file format *spell-file-format*
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258
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259 This is the format of the files that are used by the person who creates and
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260 maintains a word list.
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261
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262 Note that we avoid the word "dictionary" here. That is because the goal of
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263 spell checking differs from writing a dictionary (as in the book). For
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264 spelling we need a list of words that are OK, thus need not to be highlighted.
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265 Names will not appear in a dictionary, but do appear in a word list. And
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266 some old words are rarely used and are common misspellings. These do appear
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267 in a dictionary but not in a word list.
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268
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269 There are two formats: one with affix compression and one without. The files
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270 with affix compression are used by Myspell (Mozilla and OpenOffice.org). This
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271 requires two files, one with .aff and one with .dic extension. The second
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272 format is a list of words.
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273
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274
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275 FORMAT OF WORD LIST *spell-wordlist-format*
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276
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277 The words must appear one per line. That is all that is required.
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278 Additionally the following items are recognized:
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279 - Empty and blank lines are ignored.
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280 - Lines starting with a # are ignored (comment lines).
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308
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281 - A line starting with "/encoding=", before any word, specifies the encoding
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282 of the file. After the second '=' comes an encoding name. This tells Vim
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283 to setup conversion from the specified encoding to 'encoding'.
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284 - A line starting with "/regions=" specifies the region names that are
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285 supported. Each region name must be two ASCII letters. The first one is
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286 region 1. Thus "/regions=usca" has region 1 "us" and region 2 "ca".
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287 In an addition word list the list should be equal to the main word list!
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308
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288 - A line starting with "/?" specifies a word that should be marked as rare.
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289 - A line starting with "/!" specifies a word that should be marked as bad.
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290 - A line starting with "/=" specifies a word where case must match exactly.
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291 A "?" or "!" may be following: "/=?" and "/=!".
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292 - Digits after "/" indicate the regions in which the word is valid. If no
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293 regions are specified the word is valid in all regions.
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294 - Other lines starting with '/' are reserved for future use. The ones that
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295 are not recognized are ignored (but you do get a warning message).
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296
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297 Example:
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298
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299 # This is an example word list comment
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300 /encoding=latin1 encoding of the file
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301 /regions=uscagb regions "us", "ca" and "gb"
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302 example word for all regions
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303 /1blah word for region 1 "us"
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304 /!Vim bad word
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305 /?3Campbell rare word in region 3 "gb"
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306 /='s mornings keep-case word
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307
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301
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308
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309 FORMAT WITH AFFIX COMPRESSION
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310
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311 There are two files: the basic word list and an affix file. The affixes are
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312 used to modify the basic words to get the full word list. This significantly
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313 reduces the number of words, especially for a language like Polish. This is
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314 called affix compression.
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221
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315
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316 The format for the affix and word list files is mostly identical to what
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317 Myspell uses (the spell checker of Mozilla and OpenOffice.org). A description
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318 can be found here:
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319 http://lingucomponent.openoffice.org/affix.readme ~
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320 Note that affixes are case sensitive, this isn't obvious from the description.
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314
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321
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322 Vim supports a few extras. Hopefully Myspell will support these too some day.
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323 See |spell-affix-vim|.
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324
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325 The basic word list and the affix file are combined and turned into a binary
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326 spell file. All the preprocessing has been done, thus this file loads fast.
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327 The binary spell file format is described in the source code (src/spell.c).
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328 But only developers need to know about it.
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329
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330 The preprocessing also allows us to take the Myspell language files and modify
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331 them before the Vim word list is made. The tools for this can be found in the
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332 "src/spell" directory.
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333
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334
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320
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335 WORD LIST FORMAT *spell-dic-format*
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237
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336
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337 A very short example, with line numbers:
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338
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339 1 1234
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340 2 aan
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341 3 Als
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342 4 Etten-Leur
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343 5 et al.
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344 6 's-Gravenhage
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345 7 's-Gravenhaags
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346 8 bedel/P
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347 9 kado/1
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348 10 cadeau/2
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349
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314
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350 The first line contains the number of words. Vim ignores it, but you do get
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351 an error message if it's not there. *E760*
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352
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353 What follows is one word per line. There should be no white space before or
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354 after the word.
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355
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356 When the word only has lower-case letters it will also match with the word
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357 starting with an upper-case letter.
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358
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359 When the word includes an upper-case letter, this means the upper-case letter
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360 is required at this position. The same word with a lower-case letter at this
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361 position will not match. When some of the other letters are upper-case it will
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362 not match either.
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363
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364 The same word with all upper-case characters will always be OK.
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365
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366 word list matches does not match ~
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367 als als Als ALS ALs AlS aLs aLS
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368 Als Als ALS als ALs AlS aLs aLS
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369 ALS ALS als Als ALs AlS aLs aLS
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370 AlS AlS ALS als Als ALs aLs aLS
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371
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314
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372 The KEP affix ID can be used to specifically match a word with identical case
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308
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373 only, see below.
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374
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237
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375 Note in line 5 to 7 that non-word characters are used. You can include
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376 any character in a word. When checking the text a word still only matches
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377 when it appears with a non-word character before and after it. For Myspell a
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378 word starting with a non-word character probably won't work.
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379
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380 After the word there is an optional slash and flags. Most of these flags are
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381 letters that indicate the affixes that can be used with this word.
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382
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237
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383 *spell-affix-vim*
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314
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384 A flag that Vim adds and is not in Myspell is the flag defined with KEP in the
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308
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385 affix file. This has the meaning that case matters. This can be used if the
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386 word does not have the first letter in upper case at the start of a sentence.
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314
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387 Example (assuming that = was used for KEP):
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237
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388
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389 word list matches does not match ~
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390 's morgens/= 's morgens 'S morgens 's Morgens
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391 's Morgens 's Morgens 'S morgens 's morgens
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221
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392
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237
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393 *spell-affix-mbyte*
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394 The basic word list is normally in an 8-bit encoding, which is mentioned in
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395 the affix file. The affix file must always be in the same encoding as the
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396 word list. This is compatible with Myspell. For Vim the encoding may also be
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397 something else, any encoding that "iconv" supports. The "SET" line must
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398 specify the name of the encoding. When using a multi-byte encoding it's
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399 possible to use more different affixes.
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221
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400
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258
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401 *spell-affix-chars*
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314
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402 When using an 8-bit encoding the affix file should define what characters are
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403 word characters (as specified with ENC). This is because the system where
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404 ":mkspell" is used may not support a locale with this encoding and isalpha()
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405 won't work. For example when using "cp1250" on Unix.
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258
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406
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407 *E761* *E762*
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408 Three lines in the affix file are needed. Simplistic example:
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409
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308
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410 FOL áëñáëñ ~
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411 LOW áëñáëñ ~
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412 UPP áëñÁËÑ ~
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258
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413
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414 All three lines must have exactly the same number of characters.
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415
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416 The "FOL" line specifies the case-folded characters. These are used to
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417 compare words while ignoring case. For most encodings this is identical to
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418 the lower case line.
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419
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420 The "LOW" line specifies the characters in lower-case. Mostly it's equal to
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421 the "FOL" line.
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422
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423 The "UPP" line specifies the characters with upper-case. That is, a character
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424 is upper-case where it's different from the character at the same position in
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425 "FOL".
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426
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427 ASCII characters should be omitted, Vim always handles these in the same way.
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428 When the encoding is UTF-8 no word characters need to be specified.
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429
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430 *E763*
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431 All spell files for the same encoding must use the same word characters,
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264
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432 otherwise they can't be combined without errors. The XX.ascii.spl spell file
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433 generated with the "-ascii" argument will not contain the table with
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434 characters, so that it can be combine with spell files for any encoding.
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258
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435
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314
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436 *spell-affix-KEP*
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437 In the affix file a KEP line can be used to define the affix name used for
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308
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438 keep-case words. Example:
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439
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314
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440 KEP = ~
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308
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441
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442 See above for an example |spell-affix-vim|.
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443
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314
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444 *spell-affix-RAR*
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308
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445 In the affix file a RAR line can be used to define the affix name used for
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446 rare words. Example:
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447
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448 RAR ? ~
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449
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450 Rare words are highlighted differently from bad words. This is to be used for
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451 words that are correct for the language, but are hardly ever used and could be
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452 a typing mistake anyway.
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453
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454
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221
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455 vim:tw=78:sw=4:ts=8:ft=help:norl:
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