Is The English Language Too Rich For The Average Spellchecker ?

[Canary42]

I often see examples of where this is probably the case. The one which inspired this post was "Nothing phased her" for "Nothing fazed her". Homophones seem to defeat the technology, and mislead the unwary.

https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/06/the-difference-between-faze-and-phase/

[Fitzer]

The answer is in the question, they are spell checkers not content/correct usage checkers. What is required is more intelligence (!) on the part of the writer. :-)

[Buenchico]

Spellcheckers (rather than grammar checkers) don't have any regard to context.

So, for example, "their", "there" and "they're" will always be seen as correct (because they're all in the spellchecker's lexicon), irrespective of whether they actually are or not.

[jourdain2]

Yes. I fight with the computer very often. It also insists on inserting a capital letter after I have typed an abbreviation and begun the next word with lower-case - then I have to go back and alter it.

English is superbly rich - and yet to a certain level it is the easiest of all languages to use for basic communication..... no gender alterations for 'the' for instance....which is why it is so widespread.

[Tilly2]

Not intelligence, much more to do with vocabulary development and widening.

[CrapAtCryptics]

Sounds like you are being homophonic Chico

[Spicerack]

I was reading an official report on a 6 nations game yesterday.
Reckoned some player burst threw the pack to score.

[Nical]

Canary, 'phase' and 'faze' mean exactly the same. I checked Chambers.

[The Builder]

Are you quite sure, Nical?

Phase comes from the Greek, meaning "appearance"

Faze is from an old English word to "frighten"

[bednobs]

grrr i hate it when people write "tow the line" or "here here"

[Theland]

I try ter talk proper like.
Know worra mean?

[Tilly2]

Phase and faze are not the same. What exactly does Chambers say?

[ToraToraTora]

spell checker checks spelling it cannot know if the word is the right word.

[Nical]

Chambers - Faze, also feese, feeze, phase, phease, pheese,pheeze or phase: to unsettle.

[Zacs-Master]

One shouldn’t rely on technology to tell you whether bow or bough is correct. One should be able to write what’s right.

[emmie]

but people don't, on here especially.

[emmie]

some can't seem to tell the difference between weather or whether... i find that odd, considering some are obviously intelligent people.

[woofgang]

first thing I do when i get any new piece of kit is turn off spell check and predictive text

[emmie]

you can add words to the online dictionary.. i do it all the time.

[Tilly2]

phase noun 1 a stage or period in growth or development. 2 the appearance or aspect of anything at any stage. 3 astron any of the different shapes assumed by the illuminated surface of a celestial body, eg the Moon. 4 physics the stage that a periodically varying waveform has reached at a specific moment, usually in relation to another waveform of the same frequency. 5 chem a homogeneous part of a chemical system that is separated from other such parts of the system by distinct boundaries • Ice and water form a two-phase mixture. verb (phased, phasing) to organize or carry out (changes, etc) in stages. in or out of phase coinciding, or failing to coincide, phase by phase throughout a series of changes.
ETYMOLOGY: 19c: from Greek phasis appearance.

faze verb (fazed, fazing) colloq to disturb, worry or fluster • He wasn't fazed by the adverse publicity he received. • That film completely fazed me.
ETYMOLOGY: 19c: variant of the dialect word feeze to beat off.

This is what I found online.

[jno]

my Chambers gives "same as faze" as the secondary meaning of phase.

One of those things people get "wrong" so often that they become right. I grind my teeth when I see "underway".