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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

#81

Post by beAbU »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #41
smcleod wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, only Americans use it. There's no point in arguing about it your version of a language is better or worse but for the rest of the world it's incredibly annoying having to correct Zs with Ss when using LLMs or American only software.

I'm actually Russian. The whole world uses American English, by virtue of US dominance in all important technical and cultural spheres.

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.

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

#82

Post by beAbU »

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.

I think we need to call American English "American", then you can speak American and I can speak English.

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

#83

Post by anotherevan »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #50
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…

So apparently the tool is slanted toward American English where the non-word practise is properly treated as a spelling error like colour . If you use these words in writing for Americans and you are not a citizen of the British Commonwealth, you instantly mark yourself as arrogant.

That's very colorful[sic] thinking.

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

#84

Post by dkga »

FabHK wrote: post #72
dkga wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curiously, it‘s also a tell-tale sign that a North-American typed the text.

Just as a space before colons or exclamation marks is a sign that someone francophone typed it.

Indeed - especially the space before colons and semi-colons. The space before exclamation marks sometimes happens in informal typing amongst Brazilians. But never the space before colons/semi-colons.

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

#85

Post by beAbU »

dkga wrote: post #61
beAbU wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and you are not a citizen of the British Commonwealth What do you regard as the British Commonwealth, and what variant of English spelling to you expect people to use who are not part of this grouping? Just so that you know, in case you don't, "US English" is used just about exclusively in the US, and UK English is used in most of the rest of the world, despite the fact that most of our devices incorrectly default…

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.

This is my approach/experience as well, hence my comment and question to the previous poster.

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

#86

Post by TeMPOraL »

dkga wrote: post #61
beAbU wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and you are not a citizen of the British Commonwealth What do you regard as the British Commonwealth, and what variant of English spelling to you expect people to use who are not part of this grouping? Just so that you know, in case you don't, "US English" is used just about exclusively in the US, and UK English is used in most of the rest of the world, despite the fact that most of our devices incorrectly default…

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, computers - the OS, software, SaaS - all of that is either in US English or localized to wherever the users live, and even then the US English version is usually better.

Nobody actually uses UK English here, except for English teachers. Computers don't. TV doesn't. Corporate jobs don't. And so regular people don't either.

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

#87

Post by londons_explore »

FabHK wrote: post #75
raincole wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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^

It's hilarious, on some other sites one is immediately accused of using ChatGPT when using the n-dash (–) or m-dash (—) instead of the hyphen (-). Not an issue with the monospaced font here. ETA: I stand corrected.

ChatGPT tends to speak in american english, which means it's obvious to readers in the rest of the world because local phrases aren't used.

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

#88

Post by beAbU »

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…

Where is "here"?

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

#89

Post by rubslopes »

pyman wrote: post #24
runjuu wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theoretically, it could support over 140 languages, as it is powered by the newly released Gemma 3n model. However, I haven’t tested many languages yet. In upcoming releases, Refine will support custom prompts and BYOK (Bring Your Own Key), allowing you to use any large language model you want.

What's the rationale behind adding BYOK? Or the advantages? You do realise you're already using an optimised model built for everyday devices, and that model includes some serious innovations in parameter-efficient processing, right? You're a great developer, and it looks like you're thinking about adding features like BYOK quickly to please more users. But in doing that, you might be missing the real innovation you'…

One can have a beefier server at home and may want to use it for running the model while out and about with their laptop.

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

#90

Post by TeMPOraL »

beAbU wrote: post #88
TeMPOraL wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Where is "here"?

"Here" is Poland, but in my trips to other places in Europe (and around the world), I never saw anything that would suggest this is an unique experience. On the contrary, it's pretty much self-evident, and having it be otherwise would require the last 200 years of world history to be dramatically different from what they were.
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