Vim Spell Check
I recently came across an embarrassing typo on my own website. Buried deep in a paragraph of HTML inside a Rails HAML template, there was a glaring spelling mistake. I quickly raced back to Vim and opened the template and spell checked the whole file. How? With :set spell, Vim spell check.
Many novice Vim users are unaware that spell checking is built in and as easy as enabling with :set spell. As a veteran Vim user, I was aware of spell checking and how to turn it on, but I frequently forget the full complement of commands. So for anyone that needs reminding, here are the basics for getting the most out of Vim’s spell checker:
:set spell– Turn on spell checking:set nospell– Turn off spell checking]s– Jump to the next misspelled word[s– Jump to the previous misspelled wordz=– Bring up the suggested replacementszg– Good word: Add the word under the cursor to the dictionaryzw– Woops! Undo and remove the word from the dictionary
In the screencast below, I’ve demonstrated a few of these. With the file open, :set spell has already been enabled. I find the first misspelled word with ]s. It’s actually correctly spelled, it’s the name of our status page and monitoring service, StatusGator. So I add the word to the dictionary with zg. Then I find the next misspelling with ]s and press z= to pull up the suggestion list. Finally, I press 2 to choose the replacement.
How do I turn on Vim spell check?
Use :set spell to enable spell check in Vim.
How do I turn off Vim spell check?
You can disable spell checking in Vim with :set nospell.
How do I find misspelled words in Vim?
With :set spell enabled in Vim, you can navigate to the next misspelled word using ]s and to navigate to the previous misspelled word, use [s.
How do I see spelling suggestions in Vim?
With :set spell enabled in Vim, put your cursor on a misspelled word and press z= to see a list of suggestions for the misspelled word.
How do I add a word to the Vim dictionary?
To add a word to Vim spell check dictionary, first enable spell check with :set spell then put your cursor on a misspelled word. Press zg (think of it as "g" for "good") and Vim will add it to the local dictionary.
How do I remove a word from the Vim dictionary?
You can remove a word from the Vim dictionary by putting your cursor on a misspelled word and pressing zw.
