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How do I get the Englush (UK) dictionary to be the default? I keep selecting it but it alweays reverts to English (US).

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  • Last reply by DaveJS

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Whenever I use the spellchecker (for example, like now) it persists in applying the English/United States dictionary. I use the drop-down list to change to the English/United Kingdom dictionary and it works for that particular time. I am a Brit, living in Britain, so that is the version I want. However next time I come to use it I find it has reverted to the US version again. How do I make it so the English version is the default?

Whenever I use the spellchecker (for example, like now) it persists in applying the English/United States dictionary. I use the drop-down list to change to the English/United Kingdom dictionary and it works for that particular time. I am a Brit, living in Britain, so that is the version I want. However next time I come to use it I find it has reverted to the US version again. How do I make it so the English version is the default?

All Replies (4)

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See:


Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox (Tools) > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).

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Just a basic question, "Is it actually possible to make the English UK dictionary the default rather than the US version?" The answer from cor-el to the original question seems to imply, when following the links, that there is something wrong in the profile without actually answering the the basic question that I've rephrased above.

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Do you have the en-US or the British en-GB Firefox version installed?

The en-GB version doesn't come with a dictionary, so if you have no intent to use the en-US dictionary then you can install the en-GB Firefox version and the en-GB dictionary.

Did you check for problems with the file(s) that store such settings?

Firefox should use the en-GB dictionary once you have selected that dictionary via the right-click context menu in a text area.

If that isn't the case and there is either a problem with the prefs.js file that stores such choices and other settings or an extension changes it, so you need to check out the KB articles that I posted above.

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Downloading the British version and installing it works! (It seems to install as an update to my existing (US?) copy and as far as I can tell all my other settings are fine - I was sweating on this being so!!).

So thanks very much for the solution - I can now type "realise" without a wiggly red line.

But the short answer to the original question and my subsequent question is "No - there is no way of changing the default dictionary within the Firefox options"