Spell check thinks 'ans' is a word

[iD3Z1GN]

Why does Illustrator CC 2019 spell check consider the spelling mistake 'ans' (supposed to be 'and') to be an actual word? ... it does not exist in the English language!!

- This has caused extreme financial loss and a huge waste of precious time.

- I can't contact anyone at Adobe regarding this matter.

Overall Ai spell check is unreliable and has been the cause of recent issues. Can anyone suggest how to adjust this in Ai itself or maybe even suggest a work around?

[Monika Gause]

and there seem to be a couple of alternative Hunspell dictionaries for English: Other English Dictionaries

Also there are newer versions for other languages available (I found a newer one for German than what is currently installed)

Besides the Hunspell plugin bundle in the Illustrator app there is also a Linguistics folder inside the system library that has Hunspell resources.

[Ton Frederiks]

Yes, but only InDesign allows you to add them:

Add and remove Hunspell dictionaries in different languages in InDesign

It would be nice if all Adobe apps would use shared dictionary files.

[Monika Gause]

In my archive I actually found a piece of (official) CS6 documentation that described how to add a dictionary in Illustrator. I tried it out in CC, but it didn't work. I don't know if it worked back in CS6.

It's also quite chaotic, because there are dictionaries in the system library as well as in the application package. So maybe that feature was dropped some time ago.

Also although you cannot add dictionaries you might still be able to update them, but I wouldn't know how you could check if it even worked 😄

[Ton Frederiks]

Down the rabbit hole...

I never knew (or have forgotten) that you could add or update Illustrator dictionaries.

From what I can see the dictionaries look old.

[Kenneth Kawamoto]

If ifs and ans were pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers' hands

Learnt something new (old) today

[Ton Frederiks]

  wrote

If ifs and ans were pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers' hands

Learnt something new (old) today

Spelcheck thinks pans should be pants 🙂

[Kurt Gold]

This topic should probably be discussed on the forthcoming Oktoberfest in Munich.

There one can often hear the toast "ans geht noch!" (a variation is "oans geht noch!") which roughly means: A pretty drunken person thinks that he may or should drink at least one other litre of beer.

[Kenneth Kawamoto]

Oktoberfest has been on my bucket list since its inception - anyway, an/ans is definitely a word in English and AI should not flag as misspelt word, so please leave as is.

[Jacob Bugge]

It might also be suitable to discuss it at Up Helly Aa, maybe after the longship has been torched, at least by those sober enough to ans the torching.

Actually, ans is just as (British) English as auld and lang and syne, one of its meanings being to heed/take notice of.

[Doug A Roberts]

That is British, but certainly not English!

[Jacob Bugge]

Indeed, Doug, but so are the three other words I mentioned, and they are most definitely considered English, to the extent that they form the name, and a recurring part, of the last song on The Last Night of the Proms.

[Doug A Roberts]

I'm being overly nationalistic, but that is Scots

[Jacob Bugge]

True, Doug, especially contemporarily speaking.

But as it appears from the original name of (early) Scots, namely Inglis which was a contemporary general English form of the word English, Scots originally formed part of Old and Middle English, and in many ways Scots is closer to Old and Middle English than is contemporary English.

And in addition to the meaning mentioned above in post #36 (ans = heed/take notice of) with a clear Norse/Norn background (hence the Up Helly Aa reference), ans also has (had) the meaning ans = once, not only in Scots but also in general English as a late Middle English form.

[iD3Z1GN]

Well done Mike, your answer provides a helpful thought process and evidence of proof. This is exactly the kind of response I look forward from this forum. Much appreciated.

[stevemyers]

I think ans is the abbreviation of the answer so you should not be facing this problem, can't figure out what is the matter.

[iD3Z1GN]

Your contribution lacks thought process and due diligence. Show us the evidence of your comment or is this just a little brain dump?