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Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

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Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#121

Post by [deleted] »

raegis wrote: post #38
Deukhoofd wrote: post #8

Does anyone know how this compares to other products in its field, such as LanguageTool and Harper? LanguageTool can be hosted locally, and Harper runs entirely as an extension, so I'm interested in how the spelling and grammar checks compare.

I just tested both on the text "Look Dick. See Jane. Jane run home. I says you go home to. They eats dinner." LanguageTool does what I would expect. Harper does not. However, both whine about two spaces after a period. Edit: Alas, Hacker News also removes the extra space after periods.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#122

Post by BoredPositron »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #37
smcleod wrote: post #31

How well does it handle standard international English? So many of the tools I've seen seem to only support American English.

Speaking of which, isn't it time to consider American English to be the standard one? Colour and licence are so quaint.

Europe still teaches British English in schools.

Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#123

Post by cjs_ac »

rafram wrote: post #103
cjs_ac wrote: post #25

The screenshot shows the (corrected) example sentence: > Sometimes I still make mistakes with articles and prepositions, but my grammar is getting better every day I practice. In American/Simplified English, this is grammatically correct. However, in 'full fat' English, practice is a noun, whereas practise is a verb; e.g. : > I go to my practice to practise medicine. The problem I have with this website is that it's…

Describing American English as “simplified” English is textbook bad linguistics. It’s a different dialect, not an inherently simpler or more complex one.

It's an old meme: https://imgur.com/thats-bit-harsh-steam-XCEdD8W

In the UK, it's considered good form to be humorous when making an argument; I gather that in the US, you're supposed to sound like you're making a speech to prepare troops for war. I apologise if, in the course of describing how a product is unsuitable for use in my culture, I made that argument according to the norms of my culture.

Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#126

Post by macintux »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #95
beAbU wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't think this is true. In many places outside the US our devices will default to US spelling, making it appear as if the language spoken by the locals is US English. But when you look at things like the type of English being taught in school, or the language used by the government, it'll be UK/International English.

I regularly correspond to people from all over the world, India, China, Brazil, France, and they all tend to use US English, thus the suggestion. Commonwealth countries are relatively minor in population compared to the USA and the rest of the world. And yes, default US spelling in devices does play a role. See prev. point about technological and cultural dominance.

> Commonwealth countries are relatively minor in population compared to the USA and the rest of the world.

Given India's presence in the Commonwealth, this seems an odd assertion. 2.6 billion people live in the Commonwealth[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_Commonwea...

Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#127

Post by 18172828286177 »

cjs_ac wrote: post #25

The screenshot shows the (corrected) example sentence: > Sometimes I still make mistakes with articles and prepositions, but my grammar is getting better every day I practice. In American/Simplified English, this is grammatically correct. However, in 'full fat' English, practice is a noun, whereas practise is a verb; e.g. : > I go to my practice to practise medicine. The problem I have with this website is that it's…

For what it’s worth, I’m a native British English speaker and don’t instinctively consider “practice” “grammatically incorrect”. Indeed, I would probably write “practice” myself.

Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#128

Post by naniwaduni »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #86
dkga wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at an international organisation, and can confirm. My understanding is that is that at the international level, only the US-based international organisations use US English. To be sure, I don‘t have any dog in this fight, just highlighting a fact from my experience that many here might not know.

That sounds surprising. As an European, I thought that UK only thinks their English is the dominant one, because it's the one officially taught everywhere. Meanwhile, the reality is, people learn English primarily from Hollywood and MTV; music, video, television and computer games are both the primary exposure and the main reason for people to pick English up, and they're almost all in US English. Secondarily, comput…

The kind of organization that identifies as an "international organization" is disproportionately likely to be hyperaware of its working language choice and standardize on a particular English dialect by policy and pick en-gb.

Without such a conscious choice, yes, Americanisms do seem a fair bit more globally pervasive and easy to fall into "by accident".

Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#129

Post by throwaway2025_1 »

rafram wrote: post #103
cjs_ac wrote: post #25

The screenshot shows the (corrected) example sentence: > Sometimes I still make mistakes with articles and prepositions, but my grammar is getting better every day I practice. In American/Simplified English, this is grammatically correct. However, in 'full fat' English, practice is a noun, whereas practise is a verb; e.g. : > I go to my practice to practise medicine. The problem I have with this website is that it's…

Describing American English as “simplified” English is textbook bad linguistics. It’s a different dialect, not an inherently simpler or more complex one.

Could the 'Simplified Spelling Board'[1] of 1906 have anything to do with the naming?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Spelling_Board

Re: Show HN: Refine – A Local Alternative to Grammarly

#130

Post by InsideOutSanta »

raincole wrote: post #63
londons_explore wrote: post #27

> Powered by local AI models I worry that this will make my writing more likely to fail an AI coursework detector, which could really impact my life. The risk just isn't worth it till someone has tested the output through all the big players (turnitin etc.)

If I use correct punctuation marks my work will be more likely to be \detected\ as AI written; The risk just isn"t worth it so I never do that^

We'll soon need a writing tool that introduces spelling and grammar errors into our text and messes with punctuation so that we aren't accused of using LLMs.
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