enchant: Access to the enchant spellchecking library

This module provides several classes for performing spell checking via the Enchant spellchecking library. For more details on Enchant, visit the project website:

https://abiword.github.io/enchant/

Spellchecking is performed using Dict objects, which represent a language dictionary. Their use is best demonstrated by a quick example:

>>> import enchant
>>> d = enchant.Dict("en_US")   # create dictionary for US English
>>> d.check("enchant")
True
>>> d.check("enchnt")
False
>>> d.suggest("enchnt")
['enchant', 'enchants', 'enchanter', 'penchant', 'incant', 'enchain', 'enchanted']

Languages are identified by standard string tags such as “en” (English) and “fr” (French). Specific language dialects can be specified by including an additional code - for example, “en_AU” refers to Australian English. The later form is preferred as it is more widely supported.

To check whether a dictionary exists for a given language, the function dict_exists() is available. Dictionaries may also be created using the function request_dict().

A finer degree of control over the dictionaries and how they are created can be obtained using one or more Broker objects. These objects are responsible for locating dictionaries for a specific language.

Note that unicode strings are expected throughout the entire API. Bytestrings should not be passed into any function.

Errors that occur in this module are reported by raising subclasses of Error.

class enchant.Broker

Broker object for the Enchant spellchecker.

Broker objects are responsible for locating and managing dictionaries. Unless custom functionality is required, there is no need to use Broker objects directly. The py:mod:enchant module provides a default broker object so that Dict objects can be created directly.

The most important methods of this class include:

dict_exists(): check existence of a specific language dictionary

request_dict(): obtain a dictionary for specific language

set_ordering(): specify which dictionaries to try for a given language.

describe() → List[ProviderDesc]

Return list of provider descriptions.

This method returns a list of descriptions of each of the dictionary providers available. Each entry in the list is a ProviderDesc object.

dict_exists(tag: str) → bool

Check availability of a dictionary.

This method checks whether there is a dictionary available for the language specified by tag. It returns True if a dictionary is available, and False otherwise.

get_param(name: str) → Any

Get the value of a named parameter on this broker.

Parameters are used to provide runtime information to individual provider backends. See the method set_param() for more details.

Warning

This method does not work when using the Enchant C library version 2.0 and above

list_dicts() → List[Tuple[str, ProviderDesc]]

Return list of available dictionaries.

This method returns a list of dictionaries available to the broker. Each entry in the list is a two-tuple of the form:

(tag,provider)

where tag is the language lag for the dictionary and provider is a ProviderDesc object describing the provider through which that dictionary can be obtained.

list_languages() → List[str]

List languages for which dictionaries are available.

This function returns a list of language tags for which a dictionary is available.

request_dict(tag: str | None = None) → Dict

Request a Dict object for the language specified by tag.

This method constructs and returns a Dict object for the requested language. tag should be a string of the appropriate form for specifying a language, such as “fr” (French) or “en_AU” (Australian English). The existence of a specific language can be tested using the method dict_exists().

If tag is not given or is None, an attempt is made to determine the current language in use. If this cannot be determined, Error is raised.

Note

this method is functionally equivalent to calling the Dict() constructor and passing in the broker argument.

request_pwl_dict(pwl: str) → Dict

Request a Dict object for a personal word list.

This method behaves as request_dict() but rather than returning a dictionary for a specific language, it returns a dictionary referencing a personal word list. A personal word list is a file of custom dictionary entries, one word per line.

set_ordering(tag: str, ordering: str) → None

Set dictionary preferences for a language.

The Enchant library supports the use of multiple dictionary programs and multiple languages. This method specifies which dictionaries the broker should prefer when dealing with a given language. tag must be an appropriate language specification and ordering is a string listing the dictionaries in order of preference. For example a valid ordering might be “aspell,myspell,ispell”. The value of tag can also be set to “*” to set a default ordering for all languages for which one has not been set explicitly.

set_param(name: str, value: Any) → None

Set the value of a named parameter on this broker.

Parameters are used to provide runtime information to individual provider backends.

Warning

This method does not work when using the Enchant C library version 2.0 and above

class enchant.Dict(tag: str | None = None, broker: Broker | None = None)

Dictionary object for the Enchant spellchecker.

Dictionary objects are responsible for checking the spelling of words and suggesting possible corrections. Each dictionary is owned by a Broker object, but unless a new Broker has explicitly been created then this will be the enchant module default Broker and is of little interest.

The important methods of this class include:

check(): check whether a word is spelled correctly

suggest(): suggest correct spellings for a word

add(): add a word to the user’s personal dictionary

remove(): add a word to the user’s personal exclude list

add_to_session(): add a word to the current spellcheck session

store_replacement(): indicate a replacement for a given word

Information about the dictionary is available using the following attributes:

tag: the language tag of the dictionary

provider: a ProviderDesc object for the dictionary provider

add(word: str) → None: Add a word to the user’s personal word list.

add_to_pwl(word: str) → None: Add a word to the user’s personal word list.

add_to_session(word: str) → None: Add a word to the session personal list.

check(word: str) → bool

Check spelling of a word.

This method takes a word in the dictionary language and returns True if it is correctly spelled, and False otherwise.

is_added(word: str) → bool: Check whether a word is in the personal word list.

is_removed(word: str) → bool: Check whether a word is in the personal exclude list.

remove(word: str) → None: Add a word to the user’s personal exclude list.

remove_from_session(word: str) → None: Add a word to the session exclude list.

store_replacement(mis: str, cor: str) → None

Store a replacement spelling for a miss-spelled word.

This method makes a suggestion to the spellchecking engine that the miss-spelled word mis is in fact correctly spelled as cor. Such a suggestion will typically mean that cor appears early in the list of suggested spellings offered for later instances of mis.

suggest(word: str) → List[str]

Suggest possible spellings for a word.

This method tries to guess the correct spelling for a given word, returning the possibilities in a list.

class enchant.DictWithPWL(tag: str, pwl: str | None = None, pel: str | None = None, broker: Broker | None = None)

Dictionary with separately-managed personal word list.

Note

As of version 1.4.0, enchant manages a per-user pwl and exclude list. This class is now only needed if you want to explicitly maintain a separate word list in addition to the default one.

This class behaves as the standard class Dict, but also manages a personal word list stored in a separate file. The file must be specified at creation time by the pwl argument to the constructor. Words added to the dictionary are automatically appended to the pwl file.

A personal exclude list can also be managed, by passing another filename to the constructor in the optional pel argument. If this is not given, requests to exclude words are ignored.

If either pwl or pel are None, an in-memory word list is used. This will prevent calls to add() and remove() from affecting the user’s default word lists.

The Dict object managing the PWL is available as the pwl attribute. The Dict object managing the PEL is available as the pel attribute.

To create a DictWithPWL from the user’s default language, use None as the tag argument.

add(word: str) → None

Add a word to the associated personal word list.

This method adds the given word to the personal word list, and automatically saves the list to disk.

add_to_pwl(word: str) → None

Add a word to the associated personal word list.

This method adds the given word to the personal word list, and automatically saves the list to disk.

check(word: str) → bool

Check spelling of a word.

This method takes a word in the dictionary language and returns True if it is correctly spelled, and False otherwise. It checks both the dictionary and the personal word list.

is_added(word: str) → bool: Check whether a word is in the personal word list.

is_removed(word: str) → bool: Check whether a word is in the personal exclude list.

remove(word: str) → None: Add a word to the associated exclude list.

suggest(word: str) → List[str]

Suggest possible spellings for a word.

This method tries to guess the correct spelling for a given word, returning the possibilities in a list.

class enchant.ProviderDesc(name: str, desc: str, file: str)

Simple class describing an Enchant provider.

Each provider has the following information associated with it:

name: Internal provider name (e.g. “aspell”)

desc: Human-readable description (e.g. “Aspell Provider”)

file: Location of the library containing the provider

enchant.dict_exists(tag: str) → bool

Check availability of a dictionary.

This method checks whether there is a dictionary available for the language specified by tag. It returns True if a dictionary is available, and False otherwise.

enchant.get_enchant_version() → str: Get the version string for the underlying enchant library.

enchant.get_param(name: str) → Any

Get the value of a named parameter on this broker.

Parameters are used to provide runtime information to individual provider backends. See the method set_param() for more details.

Warning

This method does not work when using the Enchant C library version 2.0 and above

enchant.get_user_config_dir() → str: Return the path that will be used by some Enchant providers to look for custom dictionaries.

enchant.list_dicts() → List[Tuple[str, ProviderDesc]]

Return list of available dictionaries.

This method returns a list of dictionaries available to the broker. Each entry in the list is a two-tuple of the form:

(tag,provider)

where tag is the language lag for the dictionary and provider is a ProviderDesc object describing the provider through which that dictionary can be obtained.

enchant.list_languages() → List[str]

List languages for which dictionaries are available.

This function returns a list of language tags for which a dictionary is available.

enchant.request_dict(tag: str | None = None) → Dict

Request a Dict object for the language specified by tag.

This method constructs and returns a Dict object for the requested language. tag should be a string of the appropriate form for specifying a language, such as “fr” (French) or “en_AU” (Australian English). The existence of a specific language can be tested using the method dict_exists().

If tag is not given or is None, an attempt is made to determine the current language in use. If this cannot be determined, Error is raised.

Note

this method is functionally equivalent to calling the Dict() constructor and passing in the broker argument.

enchant.request_pwl_dict(pwl: str) → Dict

Request a Dict object for a personal word list.

This method behaves as request_dict() but rather than returning a dictionary for a specific language, it returns a dictionary referencing a personal word list. A personal word list is a file of custom dictionary entries, one word per line.

enchant.set_param(name: str, value: Any) → None

Set the value of a named parameter on this broker.

Parameters are used to provide runtime information to individual provider backends.

Warning

This method does not work when using the Enchant C library version 2.0 and above

enchant.set_prefix_dir(path: str) → None

Set the prefix used by the Enchant library to find its plugins

Called automatically when the Python library is imported when required.