Windows 10 will reach EOS (end of support) on October 14, 2025. For more information, see this article.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Set Default T-Bird Language to Canadian English

  • 2 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 20 views
  • Last reply by H- Y-L

H- Y-L
H- Y-L
more options

How do I set T-bird to use the Canadian English dictionary by *default*? Currently, it's defaulting to US-English, and it's tedious to have to set each individual email language to Canadian.

I'm running T-Bird on Windows 10 (laptop) and Enterprise 7 (work/desktop). Both of those systems have Canadian English as the default. My area settings are for Canada.

FYI: Thunderbird does not have an official downloadable version of Canadian English language version here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/all/ BUT there is a Canadian English add-on here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/language-tools/ I have the latter installed, and it works when I reset the email to Canadian English (see screenshot for the process).

Many thanks!

How do I set T-bird to use the Canadian English dictionary by *default*? Currently, it's defaulting to US-English, and it's tedious to have to set each individual email language to Canadian. I'm running T-Bird on Windows 10 (laptop) and Enterprise 7 (work/desktop). Both of those systems have Canadian English as the default. My area settings are for Canada. FYI: Thunderbird does not have an official downloadable version of Canadian English language version here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/all/ BUT there is a Canadian English add-on here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/language-tools/ I have the latter installed, and it works when I reset the email to Canadian English (see screenshot for the process). Many thanks!

Chosen solution

Thanks for replying! I might have found the solution but to help any others in future, the version of Thunderbird I'm using is 45.8.0. {sorry, should have said this before}

In this version, "Composition" is NOT found under Tools/Options/Composition.

It is under Account Settings/ Composition & Addressing/ Spelling/ Language

Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (2)

H- Y-L
H- Y-L Question owner
more options

Chosen Solution

Thanks for replying! I might have found the solution but to help any others in future, the version of Thunderbird I'm using is 45.8.0. {sorry, should have said this before}

In this version, "Composition" is NOT found under Tools/Options/Composition.

It is under Account Settings/ Composition & Addressing/ Spelling/ Language

H- Y-L
H- Y-L Question owner
more options

Not to belabour the point, but in the interests of helping future users:

I had assumed you meant "Tools" in the Thunderbird Menu. Unfortunately, that "Tools" does not offer a subcategory called Account Settings (as the jpgs show).

The only "Tools" that leads to Account Settings is the one *within a Write pane* (ie, when writing an email), in which case "Tools" does lead to "Account Settings" (again, see jpgs).

In other words, unless you say to *start* in the Write pane, directing someone to select "Tools" does not necessarily lead to "Options or Account Settings/ Composition/ and ultimately Global Language setting.

[On reflection, it seems odd that there are two "Tools" options, with different contents, one in "Write" and the other in the "Thunderbird Menu". I'd not realized how contextual the 'Tools' menu was.]

Thanks again for helping me reset the global language. I restarted the system, and upgraded to version 52.0 and my global language is still Canadian English, for which I'm very grateful. Hooray!