The Finnish spell checker in OpenOffice.org does more harm than good
| Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| openoffice.org (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Undecided
|
Matthias Klose | ||
Bug Description
Binary package hint: openoffice.org
The Finnish spell checker in OpenOffice.org systematically complains on correctly spelt compounds _and_ suggests incorrect spellings.
Here are just some examples in a simple document; most compounds in the text seem to be marked as incorrectly spelt. The text is correctly marked as being in Finnish. In this list, the first one is the correct spelling (flagged as incorrect by OpenOffice.org); the second one is the wrong suggestion:
"allekirjoitus" -> "alle kirjoitus"
"opinnäytteet" -> "opin näytteet"
"opiskelijapalaute" -> "opiskelija palaute"
"työtehtävät" -> "työ tehtävät"
"työtehtävissä" -> "työ tehtävissä"
"työympäristö" -> "työ ympäristö"
"urakehitykselle" -> "ura kehitykselle"
Not knowing a word is natural; making incorrect suggestions is not. Yes, I can easily imagine _why_ the spell checker makes such recommendations, but it just does not work in the case of Finnish.
In these kinds of cases, not all native Finnish speakers know which one is the correct spelling. I am worried if someone actually believes these suggestions.
A simple fix would be to disable the Finnish spell checker in the default installation, until it works well enough.
Platform: latest Kubuntu; I have used the Language Support tool to install support for Finnish and English. All settings in OpenOffice.org should be in their default values; I do not think I have done anything to configure any spell checkers.
PS. Just for fun, had to test this one:
"Lappeenranta" -> "Lappeen ranta"
| Changed in openoffice.org: | |
| status: | Unconfirmed → Confirmed |
| Jelle de Jong (jelledejong) wrote | #2 |
| Matthias Klose (doko) wrote | #3 |
| Changed in openoffice.org: | |
| assignee: | nobody → doko |
| status: | Confirmed → Fix Released |
Sadly, I have to confirm this using Kubuntu Dapper with the standard OOo packages. For lots of Finns, the correct spelling of compounds is actually a problem, and having OpenOffice.org give incorrect suggestions doesn't help. (The only good thing about this is, that at least it does this systematically, seems to me it might do this on practically every compound word, so if you notice this you'll be able to avoid the wrong spellings...)
As it stands in its current form, the spell checker isn't of much use, since, as stated, it seems to stumble on most (if not all) compound words. Using it "just to catch mis-pressed keys" is cumbersome because of this. (I'm lucky to have learned to type without the aid of spell checkers, so I can manage just fine without them too. ;-)
I am not able to do judge the current state of Finnish spell checking on the whole in Ubuntu / OOo, i.e. how useful it is otherwise, so I can't say if disabling it by default is the way to deal with this. I will say, however, considering this bug that disabling the spell checker by default until it can handle this _is_ a suggestion that should seriously be considered.