Check spelling and grammar automatically in emails on the Mac

How many times have you quickly typed in an email message and clicked the Send button only to realise too late that there was a typing slip in the message? Check emails before sending them.

Sometimes you don’t realise there is a mistake or typing slip in a message until you receive a reply and can see that there is a typo in the quoted text. Why do typos stand out so much after you have sent and email and are ractically invisible before? It is one of life's mysteries.

Of course, it doesn't matter that much when chatting with your best friend, but you should not let errors creep into messages you use for work, job applications and similar purposes. Make sure to use spelling and grammar checking in the Mail app on your Mac.

Spelling and grammar options in macOS

When you create a new email message in Mail, are typing slips, spelling mistakes and grammar errors highlighted? If they are not, Ctrl+click in the body of the message or go to the Edit menu and then the Spelling and Grammar submenu. Select While Typing on the Check Spelling menu. Also enable the two other options, Check Grammar With Spelling and Correct Spelling Automatically.

You can put off spelling checking until the message is sent, if you prefer to focus on your typing, but for most people the best option is While Typing. As you type, the spelling of each word is checked and it is underlined with a dotted red line if it is not correct.

You can easily see ptying slips and this enables you to go back and change it. Ctrl+click the red underlined word and select the correct word from the list that is displayed.

Notice that 'rite' is not recognised as being wrong. This is because 'rite' is a word in the dictionary and it has been spelt correctly. It is clear to us that 'rite' should be 'right' but the Mac does not realise. Spelling and grammar checkers sometimes let you write nonesense, so you still have to be careful what you type.

Auto-correct spelling

An alternative to manually correcting mistakes is on the Edit or Ctrl+click menu: Spelling and Grammar > Correct Spelling Automatically. This automatically corrects typing slips and spelling errors and replaces the incorrect word with one that is spelt correctly.

With the Correct Spelling Automatically menu option enabled, corrections are displayed as you type. You do not need to do anything and as you continue, the Mac automatically corrects the misspelt word. The replacement is shown for your information and also to give you an opportunity to reject the change. Technical and medical terms, programming variables and other things may require you to cancel the correction

Check the grammar

Ctrk+click or go to the Edit menu and enable enable Spelling and Grammar > Check Grammar With Spelling. When this is enabled, more subtle problems with the text are highlighted with a green dotted underline. A simple example is not starting a sentence with a capital letter. Let the mouse hover over a green underlined word to see what the problem is.

A suggestion appears after a few seconds hvering over a green underlined word. You can make the change yourself or the Mac can help with the correction.

Go to the Edit menu or Ctrl+click in the email and select Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar. A small window opens and the whole email can be checked and suggestions accepted or rejected.

Check spelling and grammar in a browser

These spelling and grammar checking features mostly work in a browser like Safari or Chrome as they do in the Mail app on the Mac. This means that you can correct typos when using web-based email services like Gmail, Outlook, iCloud and others.

There are also extensions like Grammarly for Chrome and Safari that you may prefer. Open the Mac App Store and search for Grammarly, then install it. Run it and then open Safari > System Preferences > Extensions and enable the Grammarly extension.

Grammarly places a green dot in the bottom right corner if everything is OK, but if a red dot appears, there are problems. These are highlighted with a red underline and letting the mouse hover over them displays a menu. Click the suggestion to replace the incorrect word.