The blas. Grammar Checker is here

It checks spelling, grammar and punctuation in Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish and Breton, and in English too. Get it at blasapp.com/grammar-checker, which links to each store.

• Six Celtic languages, plus English - Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, Breton and English
• Underlines as you type - a wavy red line on a mistake, with a suggested fix
• Learn why - a short explanation of the rule behind each suggestion
• On your device - no sign-in to check, and typing alone sends nothing

What it does

It sits in the browser you already write in: Gmail compose boxes, comments, web forms and most rich-text editors. Hover or click an underline and you see the fix. Accept it, dismiss it, or press Learn why to read the rule.

Irish and Welsh have the deepest coverage, including mutations, articles, agreement, apostrophes and common confusables. Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish and Breton are more conservative for now. They cover spelling, the mutation and article checks we have implemented, punctuation, doubled words and capitals.

Here is the kind of thing it catches. In Irish, after mo (my) the first letter lenites, so Tá mo cat anseo gets an underline on cat, and the suggestion is mo chat. In Welsh, fy (my) brings in a nasal mutation, so fy cath becomes fy nghath.

What it is not

It is not a rewriter. It does not suggest what to write or rephrase, and it does not translate. Every Celtic suggestion is a correction or a prompt for you to review, backed by rules, lexicons and source corpora. It does not generate Celtic rewrites. In English, the stricter review modes add some optional clarity hints, and that is the nearest it gets to style advice.

It will also miss things. It does not claim to catch every grammar issue, and it is not a replacement for human review. Sometimes it will flag text that is correct. For anything you publish or submit, have someone who knows the language read it too.

Where it works

• Chrome - from the Chrome Web Store
• Firefox - from Firefox Add-ons
• Safari - from the Mac App Store, on macOS. It is not on iPad yet.

Google Docs does not get inline underlines yet. Use the paste checker in the extension popup instead.

What stays on your device

Checking runs on your device, against data bundled with the extension. Nothing you type is sent just because you type it.

Text leaves your device in these cases:

• Deep Review is an English-only review for linked Premium accounts. It sends the English text and context you select, and only after you click. Celtic text is rejected. Raw review text is not stored or used for training. It is on by default, and you can turn it off in Settings.
• Dictation is push-to-talk for Irish and Welsh. Audio is sent only when you press the shortcut.
• Saving a word or your writing, sending a report, and syncing your ignores happen when you press the button or link an account. A report shows you exactly which fields it will send before you submit. Ignore sync sends rule IDs and ignore keys, not the text you wrote.

Analytics is off by default, and it stays off until you turn it on in Settings. Usage analytics never includes the text you type. If you turn it on, a short, length-capped sample of corrections you accept is also sent, so we can improve the models: the flagged word or phrase, the fix you accepted, the rule, the site domain and a little of the surrounding text. Never your whole document. You can turn it off at any time.

Tell us where it falls over

It will fall over somewhere, and we only find out if you tell us. If it underlines something correct, misses a mistake you know is there, or explains a rule badly, use the report button, or message us on Discord or at info@blasapp.com.

Try it at blasapp.com/grammar-checker.

- from john at blas.