The tech giant wants to improve you’re your writing skills
What is it?
A new way of checking whether your grammar is correct. Just type the sentence you’re unsure about into Google search, then add the words ‘grammar check’. Google will tell you whether it’s right. If not, it will show what you should type instead.
Can you give me an example?
Yes – look at the screenshot right. We typed ‘Is their a problem with my broadband grammar check’ 1 , pressed Enter, and received two suggestions from Google. The first is the familiar ‘Did you mean’ option 2 , which it’s still continuing to show when it thinks you’ve made an error or spelling mistake. Below that is the new ‘Grammar check’ tool, which corrects our sentence to ‘Is there a problem with my broadband?’ 3 . Move your cursor to the right of that and a Copy button will appear 4 . Click this and the correct sentence will be copied to your clipboard, ready for you to paste wherever you like (possibly in a grumbling email to your provider). If your grammar is right, then you’ll see a green tick.
Does it check all types of grammar?
No – at least not yet. As well as there/their, it’s good at clarifying when you should use are/is and lets/let’s, and when to use plurals. It’s more erratic with your/you’re and its/it’s, working about half the time in our tests. Also, when we typed ‘It’s too hot today the children aren’t playing outside’, Google suggested adding a comma after ‘today’, which is an error called a comma splice. It’s fine when writing an informal email, but not for anything more serious. Google admits that the tool isn’t “100% accurate, especially with partial sentences” (see www.snipca. com/47227).
Will it get better over time?
Yes, because it uses AI to analyse what’s been typed, helping it to improve suggestions. You can give it
