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Problem for bilingual people (feature request)

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  • Last reply by MartyJames

MartyJames
MartyJames
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Feedback for Mozilla:

American English is the universal language of the web, so it's good that Firefox has a built-in American English dictionary. Everyone needs it.

However, if non-Americans start typing in our *own* language, we get red error lines! And if we install the dictionary for our own language, the American English dictionary stops working and we get error lines when we speak English!

I can imagine this being really annoying for everyone who is bilingual. Mexican Americans, for example?

In my own case, I'm British and spend a lot of time in British forums talking to my fellow Brits, using words like "colour", "onwards" and "customise". I don't want red error lines to appear when I type these words, so I install the British English dictionary. Except now I get an error whenever I'm talking to anyone outside the UK and use American English.

This should not happen! The American English dictionary should *always* be installed *alongside* any custom dictionary.

Feedback for Mozilla: American English is the universal language of the web, so it's good that Firefox has a built-in American English dictionary. Everyone needs it. However, if non-Americans start typing in our *own* language, we get red error lines! And if we install the dictionary for our own language, the American English dictionary stops working and we get error lines when we speak English! I can imagine this being really annoying for everyone who is bilingual. Mexican Americans, for example? In my own case, I'm British and spend a lot of time in British forums talking to my fellow Brits, using words like "colour", "onwards" and "customise". I don't want red error lines to appear when I type these words, so I install the British English dictionary. Except now I get an error whenever I'm talking to anyone outside the UK and use American English. This should not happen! The American English dictionary should *always* be installed *alongside* any custom dictionary.

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
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Firefox would normally remember the dictionary you select via the Site Preferences, so make sure that you keep the Site Preferences in case you delete history ("Clear history when Firefox closes").

You can see which dictionary is selected if you right-click in a text area and open the Languages sub menu. At least one dictionary should be installed and have a check mark to indicate that it is selected.

  • open the "Add Dictionaries" link to install a dictionary if you do not have one.

The spelling checker is enabled if [X] "Check Spelling" in the right-click context menu has a checkmark.

MartyJames
MartyJames Mwenye swali
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Thank you, Col-el. That was definitely helpful, and I did not realise you could switch so easily. I will definitely be using that tip, thank you.

However, I don't see why Firefox can't just allow two dictionaries at once, then no one ever needs to switch at all? What possible reason could anyone have to only want one of their dictionaries to be active and not all of them?

Having two dictionaries active at once would also make it much easier to write a bilingual comment, such as when you're discussing another language.

Modified by MartyJames