Languages Confused on my Mac

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Level 1

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Languages Confused on my Mac

I am having a problem with the Mac's language settings. I live in Portugal but write in English 90% of the time. I tried having English as my primary language and Portuguese as my second language, but that didn't work. I changed the settings to English only but left the country as Portugal, as it makes it much easier with a few things. Unfortunately, it shows almost everything as mis-spelled and makes some really odd suggestions. And yes, I rebooted after changing the settings. I have attached an image with the settings and a little bit of typing in Pages to show what is happening, including the suggested "fixes" for the word "have." The suggestions are all Portuguese words. I know the keyboard settings are unrelated, but I have an English keyboard set to English. M1 Mini, 11.4

Posted on Jul 21, 2021 3:59 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,322 points

Jul 21, 2021 4:26 AM in response to rockdaddy666

To control spellcheck behavior, you need to go to system preferences > keyboard > text > spelling. Also in each app you should check Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar. Make sure the dictionary is set to the language you want. "Automatic" may not always work very well.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/check-spelling-and-grammar-on-mac-mchlp2299/11.0/mac/11.0

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Answer 2

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,322 points

Jul 21, 2021 6:45 AM in response to rockdaddy666

rockdaddy666 wrote:

It's definitely not the way I would set it up if I was running things, but now I know.

The idea is that the MacOS user should be able to choose spellcheck language independently of his system language or the layout of his keyboard. iOS is more restricted: spellcheck is determined by the keyboard, which can be a problem for some users.

Let Apple know what sort of setup you prefer, via

http://www.apple.com/feedback

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Answer 3

rockdaddy666 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 21, 2021 6:29 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thanks! That worked. I read a lot of posts that said that language was only set in the Language & Region preferences but it's now clear to me that you have to go into the Keyboard settings also. It's definitely not the way I would set it up if I was running things, but now I know.

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Languages Confused on my Mac

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