User:John of Reading/Typo fixing with AutoWikiBrowser

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If anyone's interested, here is how I do bulk typo fixing:

Creating the list

I download and uncompress a 100GB database dump every couple of months, and use the AWB database scanner to create my main work lists. This is the only method I know that:

Allows precise control over the search using regular expressions
Returns the full list of results
Does not try to guess what I really meant

I am happy to be asked to create article lists for other editors. My latest download is enwiki-20260801-pages-articles.xml.bz2 watch for a new download.

Using the Database Scanner

I use a regular expression that describes several typos at once, so that I get a long list of articles that need a variety of fixes.

I like to search for a prefix rather than a whole word, so that I find occurrences where editors have mangled the ending of a word as well as the beginning.
If the list is going to be a long one, I'll run the first 1 or 2 percent of the scan and see if I can tweak the regular expression to eliminate some of the false positives.
When working on the Lists of common misspellings, I use a regular expression that searches for all the words in an entire list. For example, \be(?:ached|achother|...(several hundred more omitted)...|yasr) from the "E" list.

To use the AWB database scanner, select "Database dump" from the drop-down control just above the article list, then press "Make list". Within the scanner dialog, I choose these options before clicking "Start":

On the "Database" tab, I browse to my download folder and select the uncompressed database dump.
On the "Namespace" tab, I tick the first "Content" checkbox, which ticks everything in the first list box, then untick "Draft". These database dumps do not include any user pages, so that tick is not relevant.
On the "Title" tab, I skip blocks of titles within the Wikipedia namespace. I tick "Not contains", "Regex" and "Case sensitive", and paste the long regular expression, below, into the second text box.
On the "Revision" tab, I use the "From" date to skip old discussion pages. If it's a search I've done before, I use this to skip articles I must have seen last time; if it's a new search, then a date ten years in the past doesn't skip many articles.
On the "Text" tab, I tick "Contains", "Regex" and "Ignore comments", and paste my current search targets into the first text box.

More information Titles skipped ...

Titles skipped

Yes, there are a few article titles in this list. Some of these contain many false positives, others are where I don't wish to repeat a mistake, others are where I am avoiding a slow-motion edit war.

Settings within AutoWikiBrowser

I tick "Find & Replace"; and within the configuration dialog:
- I do not tick the "ignore" checkboxes, so that I force the correction of the current misspelling in the entire page.
- I tick "Add replacements to edit summary" so that the edit summary is as helpful as possible. For this to work properly, the "Find" strings must match all four brackets of a [[Link]].
- I usually start with my accumulated list of over 4,000 spelling rules.
- Below the spelling rules, I start with a dummy "Find & Replace" rule that finds the exact regular expression that I used for the database scan and replaces it with "INVESTIGATE".
I tick "Skip if no replacement".
I tick "Skip if only minor replacements made"; within the "Find & Replace" dialog I use the "Minor" checkbox to mark rules that make a change that is valid but, I think, not worth saving by itself

I'm currently running with General Fixes turned off because this discussion has not reached a conclusion.

I gave up on RegExpTypoFix some years ago. Although there are lots of good spelling rules there, I prefer to leave MOS fixes to editors who are prepared to defend them.

Checking each proposed edit

Then it's up to me to check each proposed edit.

If the text looks like vandalism or a WP:BLP violation, then I jump out to look at the article history.
If I can't understand what the text is trying to say, I don't try to fix it.
If my "Find & Replace" has damaged correct text, then I may pause to think about changing the re-spelling rules to avoid the false positive.
If my "Find & Replace" has identified incorrect text by changing it the word "INVESTIGATE", then I'll either add or adjust a re-spelling rule and try again, or make a one-off edit to the article text.
If my "Find & Replace" has made an incorrect fix, I'll either adjust the settings and try again, or make a one-off edit to the article text.
If the changes are part of quoted text or something like a book title, I'll jump out to another window to try to check the source.

I may make other edits in the AWB edit box, fixing additional typos or correcting syntax errors that AWB has identified but not fixed automatically.

I pick one of a handful of pre-configured edit summaries, and then modify it if necessary to describe the edits I actually made.

I try to remember to clear the "Minor edit" checkbox if I've done anything more than simple typo-fixing or if the diff seems very long; the danger is that I forget to tick it again afterwards.

Then it's "Save" and on to the next article.

There is a danger that I'll accidentally save the word "INVESTIGATE" in an article. I check for this kind of error by running this search every day or two.

Editing quotes, book titles and such like

My regular expressions run on the whole page including quotations, book titles and so on. If I edit these, I try to leave a helpful edit summary:

replaced: foo → bar per source: I found the source and was able to verify that the version at Wikipedia was incorrect. Either an earlier editor miscopied it, or, perhaps, the source has been corrected after it was copied.
replaced: foo → bar per book cover image at Amazon/Abebooks/etc.: I found an image of the book with enough pixels for the words to be read clearly.
replaced: foo → bar per a search at Amazon/Abebooks/etc.: I didn't find a usable cover image, but these external sites support the correction.
replaced: foo → bar - MOS:QUOTE recommends fixing "insignificant" errors in quoted text: I found the source also has the error, but I've made an editorial decision to apply MOS:QUOTE.
replaced: foo → bar - In a quote, but I'm assuming this was a copying error: I haven't found the source, but to me it looks like a copying error. Or perhaps MOS:QUOTE might apply.
replaced: foo → bar for legibility: I didn't bother to check the source, as the change is small and the incorrect version is hard to read - something like WIlliam > William
replaced: foo → bar: Oh dear. Perhaps I didn't spot that I was about to edit a quote, or I neglected to adjust the edit summary. Please revert if necessary, but it's possible that MOS:QUOTE might apply.

Skipping false positives

The best way to skip false positives is to use regular expressions with lookahead/lookbehind. This method is especially useful when doing the initial database scan, since it means the articles don't even appear in the list.

I've developed a few standard suffixes that arrange for some common false positives to be skipped. I'll tack some of them on to the long regular expression when doing the initial search, and sometimes tack them on to individual find+replace rules when needed.

More information Suffix, Skip matches... ...

Suffix	Skip matches...
`(?(?<![\.\-]\w)\|(?!\w[\.\-]))`	...inside hyphens or dots, probably part of a URL or domain name
`(?(?<!"\w)\|(?!\w"))`	...where a single word is inside double quotes
`(?(?<!\[\[\w)\|(?!\w\]\]))`	...where a single word is inside a wikilink
`(?![ \(\)\.\,\;\-\'\"\+\&\%\w\d]*\.(?i:(?:gif\|jpe?g\|ogg\|ogv\|pdf\|png\|svg\|tiff?\|webm))\b)`	...inside an image file name
`(?!(?:<sup>\|[\|</?nowiki>\|\W)+(?i:Sic)\b)(?<!{{(?:[Aa]s\s+written\|[Nn]at\|[Nn]ot\s+typo\|[Nn]ot\sa\stypo\|[Pp]roper\s*name\|[Ss]ic\??\|[Ss]IC\|[Tt]ypo)\\|[^{}]+)`	...inside a {{Sic}} template, or closely followed by the word "sic"
`(?<!\<\sref\s+name\s=\s*(?:"\|'\|)[\w\s\:\-\.\/]{0,99})`	...inside a reference name
`(?<!https?://[^ \\|\{\}\[\]\<\>]*)`	...inside a URL
`(?<!\b(?<!trans-)title\d\s=[^\\|\{\}]{0,255})`	...inside a title parameter, but not a trans-title

I'll typically save edits to around 40% of the articles that turn up in my list, so it is important that the other 60% are skipped efficiently.

For example, the "E" list says that "exercice" may be a misspelling of "exercise". I actually searched for \bexercic so that I found "exerciced", "exercicing" and so on. As I worked through the list I gradually expanded the rule to

exercic(?!(i|io|ios|is|o)\b)(?!es?\s+(anarchistes|au|comme|commun|d|dans|de|des|divertissants?|du|en|et|journaliers|modulé|ou|par|participatif|phénoménologique|pour|pratiques|préparatoires|prepar[eé]es|progressifs|spirituels?|sur|terminé)\b)(?<!\b(d|l)['’]exercic)(?<!\b(avec|ces|cet|des|douze|en|en\s+\d+|et|les|mes|ou|plein|son|un)\s+exercic)

More information Fragment, Meaning ...

Fragment	Meaning
`(?!(i\|io\|ios\|is\|o)\b)`	Skip if the word is "exercici" (Latin) or other foreign words
`(?!es?\s+(anarchistes\|...\|phénoménologique)\b)`	Skip if the word is "exercice" or "exercices" followed by something indicating we're in French-language text
`(?<!\b(d\|l)['’]exercic)`	Skip if the word is immediately preceded by d' or l', again indicating French-language text
`(?<!\b(avec\|...\|un)\s+exercic)`	Skip if the previous word tells us we're in French-language text

Alternatively I use the "Minor replacement" feature. If I can write a regular expression that describes a set of false positives, I'll add a respelling rule to change that to "FALSE" and mark the rule as "minor"

Namespaces

I will happily fix typos in most non-talk namespaces.

More information Namespace, Comment ...

Namespace	Comment
Draft	I don't touch these
File	I consider file descriptions and fair use rationales to be part of the encyclopedia, and fair game for typo fixing. However, I try not to fix descriptions written in the first person. Some files contain lists of old edit summaries inside `<nowiki>...</nowiki>` tags. I skip those efficiently by ticking the first "Ignore" checkbox at the top left of the "Find & Replace" dialog while working on the File namespace
Module	I'll have a look at them, but I'm most unlikely to make any edits
Portal	With care; some portal pages are used for discussion, and shouldn't be fixed; others are archives and probably shouldn't be fixed
Template	I'll fix typos in template documentation, with care; I'll even fix typos in templates sometimes, with great care
User	I don't touch these. They are not included in the database dumps so don't turn up in my lists.
Wikipedia	I aim to fix typos only on pages which are still being used. On the "Skip" tab, I have a regular expression `(\{\{([Ff]ailed\|[Hh]istorical\|[Rr]ejected)(\\|\|\}\})\|\[\[User:\|\[\[User\s+talk:\|^(?s:.{499999}))` which I turn on while working on the Wikipedia namespace. This skips most discussion pages, some other inactive pages, and huge pages that can cause AWB to hang.

Common misspellings

The settings files are here: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

May 2023: In terms of effort per fix, this approach is no longer efficient.

Each of these lists contains a mixture of spellings. Some are easy, in the sense that most articles that contains that spelling need to be fixed. Others are not easy, because although they are incorrect spellings of English words, they are valid foreign-language words, surnames, brand names, and so on. Back in 2012 there was a backlog of easy errors which I was able to fix. Nowadays I find that other editors keep on top of the easy errors, and, despite my efforts to eliminate the false positives automatically, I'm looking through a list where most of the matches shouldn't be fixed but cannot easily be skipped automatically.

More information List, Start date ...

Tackling the Lists of common misspellings
List	Start date	Time	Edits	Notes
A	March 2012	2 months	5500	My (somewhat naive) database scans created lists totalling 60,000 articles a.k.a > a.k.a. - 2,000 of these Alright > All right - Quickly abandoned, 99% song/film titles and quotations alright > all right - Abandoned after this edit anyways > anyway - Abandoned part way; too subtle to be a typo fix
	February 2015	3 weeks	4400	aka > a.k.a - Abandoned; a MOS issue, not a misspelling as such; c. 40,000 articles a.k.a > a.k.a. - 1,200 of these august > August - 300 fixes, many false positives
	November 2016	3 weeks	2800
	October 2018	3 weeks	2700
	November 2020	3 weeks	1900	antiapartheid > anti-apartheid - Not done, not convinced
	November 2022	3 weeks	2270	ant > aunt - Only searched "his/her/their ant", one fix made, to "anti"
	May 2025	3 weeks	2000
B	May 2012	3 weeks	1600	broadcasted > broadcast - Quickly abandoned; very common, and several dictionaries allow it
	September 2014	6 days	500	Reassuringly faster with improved regular expressions bye-election > by-election - Not done, some dictionaries allow it Bonnano > Bonanno - Next time don't bother, Wikipedia must follow the sources
	December 2016	6 days	600	bearly > barely - Next time look for lowercase examples only boo's > boos - Next time look for lowercase examples only
	March 2019	1 week	620
	December 2020	1 week	400
	December 2022	4 days	360	bypass > byepass - Next time skip when marked {{Use Indian English}}, seems common
	September 2025	1 week	530
C	June 2012	5 weeks	5600	cancelation > cancellation - Wiktionary allows both; feels like an engvar issue councellor > councillor or counsellor - Usually too hard to work out which fix is correct calender > calendar - The "-er" spelling seems common in the context of Patent Rolls
	October 2014	2 weeks	1900	cancelation > cancellation - Not done, several dictionaries allow it cant > can't - 60 fixes, 2000 false positives. Next time search lowercase only carrer > career - 30 fixes, 500 false positives casted > cast - 200 fixes chanel > channel - 60 fixes, 3000 false positives childrens > children/children's - 130 fixes, 1000 false positives comando > commando - Just one fix, 750 false positives. Next time don't bother? correspondance > correspondence - 20 fixes, 700 false positives
	January 2017	3 weeks	2500	carrer > career - Now a 1400-character regex for next time chanel > channel - Now a 2000-character regex constructable > constructible - Not done, at least two major dictionaries allow it
	March 2019	4 weeks	2400
	January 2021	3 weeks	2000	Cape town > Capetown - Abandoned; seems too minor a change connotate > connote - Not done, several dictionaries allow it
	January 2023	3 weeks	1850	chanel > channel - Not done this time
	February 2026	3 weeks	1750
D	October 2012	3 weeks	3500	de-facto > de facto - About 1000 of these decypher > decipher - Wiktionary allows both, but not many real dictionaries allow "decypher" dukeship > dukedom - Not done, I think there is a different shade of meaning here
	December 2014	1 week	850
	February 2017	1 week	1000
	May 2019	3 weeks	1300
	March 2021	1 week	800
	January 2023	1 week	800	decypher > decipher - Abandoned after this revert
E	November 2012	5 weeks	4650	eg > e.g. - About 600 of these enroute > en route - About 1300 of these eery > eerie - Not done, some dictionaries allow it (various) > entrepreneur - About 350 of these
	March 2015	2 weeks	1400
	March 2017	1 week	1300	eg. > e.g. - About 160 of these eg [no dot] > e.g. - On hold after this revert, discussion here
	June 2019	2 weeks	1400	eg > e.g. - Not done at all, too much discussion at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Abbreviations
	May 2021	1 week	800
	March 2023	1 week	700	employes > employs or employees - Next time search lowercase only enroute > en route - Mostly skipped despite what the dictionaries say
F	January 2013	3 weeks	2750	floatation > flotation - Not done, some dictionaries allow it fo > of/for/to - About 700 of these; I only searched for lowercase examples followup > follow-up (adjective) - About 500 of these forecasted > forecast - Not done, some dictionaries allow it forego > forgo - Not done, some dictionaries allow "forego" to mean "go without" forewent > forwent - Not done, similarly forrest > forest - Only searching for lowercase "f" to avoid the thousands of false positives
	June 2015	2 weeks	1500
	April 2017	1 week	900	forth > fourth - I only searched for forth followed by a few likely words
	July 2019	2 weeks	1050	followup > follow-up (adjective) - On hold after a revert; my post attracted no comments
	July 2021	2 weeks	950	for exemple > for example - Not done, included in my "e" list
	April 2023	2 weeks	590	fiel > feel, field, file, phial - Four fixes, 1100+ false positives
G	February 2013	8 days	1050	gae > game/Gael/gale - One fix, 400+ false positives GameBoy > Game Boy - Needs an expert. I only tackled GameBoy Advance and GameBoy Color Guiseppe > Giuseppe (et al.) - Very tricky, as each fix needed research and a detailed edit summary
	August 2015	2 weeks	500
	May 2017	5 days	300
	August 2019	1 week	500
	August 2021	1 week	350
	May 2023	1 week	290	glamourous > glamorous - not done, some dictionaries allow it
H	March 2013	11 days	1100	Habsbourg > Habsburg - Not done, needs an expert hace > hare - 900 false positives and no fixes honourary > honorary - Tricky, since 'honourary' may be valid in Canadian articles
	September 2015	1 week	550	hace > hare - 4 fixes (to have) and an 1100-character regex for the false positives
	June 2017	4 days	500	heros > heroes - Doable: 50+ fixes, 800 false positives
	September 2019	11 days	650	Delayed by phab:T232491
	September 2021	1 week	500	honourary > honorary - Still not brave enough to do this in Canadian articles
	July 2023	5 days	380
I	April 2013	3 weeks	3500	In Memorium > In Memoriam - About 60 fixes, but only where I could check with a source Inchon > Incheon - Not done, is correct in historical contexts indite > indict - Not done, I'm not familiar with either word inputted > input - Not done, some dictionaries allow it intermural > intramural - Not done, I'm not familiar with US school/college terminology internment > interment - About 100 fixes out of 3,500 total uses ironical > ironic - Not done, some dictionaries allow it its' > its or it's - About 750 of these
	September 2015	2 weeks	1250	internment > interment - Now I have a 3000-character regex for many of the false positives
	July 2017	2 weeks	1300
	November 2019	3 weeks	1700
	October 2021	2 weeks	800
	September 2023	1 week	900	internment > interment - Another 70 fixes
J	June 2013	1 day	150	judgement > judgment - Not attempted, no efficient way to skip the correct uses judgment > judgement - Likewise
	October 2015	1 day	60
	July 2017	1 day	50
	December 2019	1 day	60
	November 2021	1 day	100
	September 2023	1 day	90
K	June 2013	1 day	160	kiloohm > kilohm - Why? Kingdon > Kingdom - A few fixes, but it's quite a common surname
	October 2015	1 day	70
	August 2017	1 day	110
	December 2019	1 day	60
	November 2021	1 day	60
	November 2023	1 day	40
L	June 2013	3 weeks	2000	leafs > leaves - Only searching for lowercase matches leant > leaned - Not done, some dictionaries allow it lessor > lesser - 20 changed out of 600; next time do this separately lite > light - Not attempted, no efficient way to work through the 5,000 matches locus > locust - Done separately; just one fix (to lotus) out of 6,000 loose > lose - 250 changed out of 43000; much manual checking despite a 5Kb regex 26 different misspellings of Louisiana - 210 fixes; I searched for `\blou[ains]+a\b` Lousia > Louisa - 33 found by the Louisiana regex
	October 2015	10 days	1100	An overall 90% false positive rate despite last time's regex
	September 2017	2 weeks	1000	lead > lede - Not done, surely uncommon locus > locust - Not done, but should include it next time loose > lose - 180 changed out of 69000; regex expanded to 19Kb
	January 2019	2 weeks	1000	lillies > lilies - Next time add the "skip if in a quoted fragment" regex locus > locust - One fix, at caterpillar loose > lose - Abandoned; next time use the small regex that identifies likely errors
	November 2021	1 week	550	leaded > led - Next time use the simplified exclusion regex I've been working on loose > lose - 19 changed, using a pragmatic and simple search
	November 2023	2 weeks	430	Slowed by off-wiki distractions
M	September 2013	5 weeks	4100	majorly > mainly - Not done, hard to tell which shade of meaning is intended Malcom > Malcolm - 300 changed, but only where verifiable. "Malcom" is common as a surname. mens > men's - 700, avoiding those in Latin, Dutch, Danish... Micheal > Michael - 500 changed, but only where verifiable. "Micheal" is common in Ireland. minimali[sz]e > minimi[sz]e - Not done, some dictionaries allow it monoatomic > monatomic - Not done, allowed by Collins moreso > more so - Abandoned, too subtle to be a mere typo fix moveable > movable - Not done, many dictionaries allow it I didn't tackle "manouver" and its variants very thoroughly. In many cases it is hard to decide whether to correct to the British or American spelling; and the British spelling is frankly silly. I'll wait for the next edition of the Concise Oxford.
	December 2015	3 weeks	3600	Malcom > Malcolm - 100 fixes mens > men's - 2250 fixes, thanks to many errors inside {{MedalSport}} Micheal > Michael - 100 fixes
	September 2017	3 weeks	1900	Still very slow, and only a 20% hit rate, thanks to... Malcom > Malcolm - 130 forenames fixed, but only where verifiable mens > men's - 350 fixed, avoiding non-English uses and other false positives Micheal > Michael - 220 fixed, but only where verifiable Millenium > Millennium - 140 fixed, but in proper names only where verifiable
	January 2020	4 weeks	2050	Did I mention that this one is slow? Malcom > Malcolm - 90 fixes mens > men's - 400 fixes Micheal > Michael - 190 fixes Millenium > Millennium - 210 fixes milion > million - 90 fixes, avoiding non-English uses and the Milion
	January 2022	3 weeks	1550	How about omitting Malcom, Michael and Millenium next time?
	January 2024	2 weeks	1200	Malcom > Malcolm - 1 fix, left out of the scan this time Massachussetts (etc) > Massachusetts - 120 fixes mens > men's - 330 fixes Micheal > Michael - Not done this time Millenium > Millennium - 150 fixes, perhaps scan for lowercase only next time milion > million - 80 fixes
N	December 2013	4 days	500	Newyorker > New Yorker - Not done thoroughly, there seem to be many special usages noone > no one - 60 fixes, 3500 false positives
	February 2016	2 days	300
	October 2017	3 days	480
	March 2020	5 days	340	Newyorker > New Yorker - Abandoned
	March 2022	3 days	390
	March 2024	3 days	290	noone > no one - Not done, has been declared to be valid after all
O	January 2014	8 days	1300	octostyle > octastyle - Not done, some dictionaries allow it OSes > OSs - Not done, not obviously an improvement outputted > output - Not done, some dictionaries allow it
	February 2016	6 days	840
	November 2017	6 days	700	Ottowa > Ottawa - 100 fixes
	March 2020	5 days	580
	March 2022	1 week	740
	March 2024	1 week	660	overlayed > overlaid - Not done, too subtle for me
P	March 2014	4 weeks	4000	paide > paid - 4 fixes, 400+ false positives panal > panel - 19 fixes, 400+ false positives parlament > parliament - 120 fixes, 500+ false positives, 100+ foreign-language suffixes pasted > passed - 3 fixes, 1200 false positives persaude > persuade - Next time search for `persaud\w+` not `persaud\w` pidgeon* > pigeon - 20 fixes, 1000 false positives planed > planned - 4 fixes, 200+ false positives plentitude > plenitude - Not done, some dictionaries allow it pokemon > pokémon - Not done, needs an expert predominately > predominantly - Not done, modern dictionaries allow it profesional > professional - 235 fixes, 1600 foreign-language false positives pwn > own 4 fixes (owner (2), pen, Pennytown), 900 false positives
	March 2016	3 weeks	1900
	November 2017	3 weeks	2200
	March 2020	3 weeks	1600
	March 2022	2 weeks	1400
	June 2024	2 weeks	1350
Q	August 2013	3 days	300	quitted > quit - Not done, many dictionaries allow it
	April 2016	1 day	120
	December 2017	2 days	200
	April 2020	1 day	100
	April 2022	1 day	90
	June 2024	1 day	80
R	April 2014	2 weeks	1700	roman > Roman - 1030 fixes; I need more regular expressions to skip the false positives romans > Romans - Remember to include this next time My thanks to Arjayay for regularly tackling most of the entries in this list.
	May 2016	1 week	750
	January 2018	1 week	650	roman > Roman - 220 fixes; 2500-character regular expression
	May 2020	5 days	660
	May 2022	1 week	700
	May 2024	1 week	580
S	June 2014	4 weeks	4300	sargent > sergeant - 80 fixes, over 8,000 false positives sayed > said - I only searched for lowercase matches; see Sayyid (name) seemless > seamless - I only searched for lowercase matches; see Seemless simulcasted > simulcast - Not done, not convinced this is wrong slippy > slippery - Not done, many dictionaries allow it smoothen > smooth - Not done, many dictionaries allow it smoothes > smooths - Not done, some dictionaries allow it snuck > sneaked - Not done, many dictionaries allow it spacial > spatial or special - "spacial" seems valid, but I corrected 14 to "special" speciality > specialty - Not done, too hard to identify US contexts sportscar > sports car - Not done, see this inconclusive discussion subsequential > subsequent - Not done, Collins allows it symbolical > symbolic - Not done, the COD allows it synthetical > synthetic - Not done, some dictionaries allow it syphon > siphon - Not done, many dictionaries allow it You'd be amazed how many ways there are to spell "specification"
	June 2016	2 weeks	1250	sargent > sergeant - 20 fixes, 8,000 false positives, and a 5,700-character regex for next time
	February 2018	4 weeks	2500	Hindsight says I didn't build the list correctly last time Sahastra > Sahasra, et al. - Not done, needs an expert setlist > set list - Not done, with luck a future dictionary will include it
	May 2020	2 weeks	1500	sargent > sergeant - 35 fixes, 10,000 false positives, and the regex is up to 6,700 characters sauter > solder - 1 fix, over 2,000 false positives savy > savvy - 1 fix, over 2,000 false positives sherif > sheriff - 2 fixes, 2,000 false positives soley > solely - 10 fixes, 1,000 false positives stange > strange - 2 fixes, 1,000 false positives staring > starring - 15 fixes, 4,000 false positives steller > stellar - 2 fixes, 1,000 false positives surender > surrender - 2 fixes, 500 false positives syas > says - no fixes, 300 false positives
	May 2022	3 weeks	1600
	August 2024	3 weeks	1550	Ridiculously inefficient sargent > sergeant - Skipped this time sauter > solder - Skipped this time, next time try lowercase only Shangdong > Shandong - Not done, didn't have the courage sherif > sheriff - Skipped this time, next time search using the small regex from my correction rule Skagerak > Skagerrak - Not done, needs an expert to sort out the special cases spacial > special - One fix, too many false positives supremist > supremacist - Not done, appears to be the standard spelling in some contexts surender > surrender - Skipped this time, next time scan for -ed, -s, -ing and the small regex from my correction rule surprize > surprise - Next time omit from the scan when quoted syas > says - Skipped this time
T	March 2010	3 weeks	2100	I began with "T" because I assumed most editors would begin with "A".
	September 2014	3 weeks	2900	tendonitis > tendinitis - Not done, several dictionaries allow it tennant > tenant - c 50 fixes, over 4000 false positives ther > the/their/they/her - c 150 fixes, several hundred false positives thru > through - Abandoned after this revert; needs dual proficiency in US/International English todays > today's - c 100 fixes, mostly Today's Zaman tracklisting > track listing - So common that I think it would be disruptive to change them all transitionary > transitional - Not done, several dictionaries allow it trys > tries - c 70 fixes, a few false positives in Romanian text twitter > Twitter - c 500 fixes, but sometimes I applied WP:ELMINOFFICIAL instead
	August 2016	10 days	1300	traditon > tradition - c 400 fixes in copies of the same text
	April 2018	2 weeks	1300
	June 2020	2 weeks	1100	teh > the - c 60 fixes, over 4000 false positives Telengana > Telangana - c 60 fixes tennant > tenant - c 10 fixes, over 5000 false positives (example), and the regex is up to 4,300 characters themself > whatever - Not done, increasingly a mainstream usage ther > the/their/they/her - c 60 fixes, many false positives traning > training - c 40 fixes, mostly in copies of the same text twitter > Twitter - c 250 fixes
	July 2022	11 days	950	twitter > Twitter - mostly abandoned, more a MOS fix than a misspelling
	November 2024	12 days	620
U	March 2010	2 weeks	1200
	December 2014	1 week	1250	unadvisable > inadvisable - Not done, several dictionaries allow it undoubtably > undoubtedly - Not done, listed in my COD ukelele > ukulele - Not done, standard UK spelling unviable > inviable - Not done, several dictionaries allow it
	October 2016	5 days	700
	June 2018	1 week	840
	September 2020	4 days	500	upto > up to - Unsure, I'm now skipping articles marked {{Use Indian English}}, {{Use Pakistani English}}
	August 2022	3 days	350
	January 2025	4 days	500
V	April 2010	10 days	850
	December 2014	1 week	1750	varios > various - 11 fixes, 400 false positives varius > various - 12 fixes, 1250 false positives viceversa or vice-versa > vice versa - c 750 fixes March 2015: c 900 more that I'd skipped by mistake viri > viruses - 1 fix, 400 false positives vittel > vittle - Searched for lowercase only
	October 2016	4 days	620
	June 2018	1 week	735	vittel > vittle - Searched uppercase also
	September 2020	1 week	500
	September 2022	1 week	580
	January 2025	5 days	410	Valetta > Valletta - 70 fixes despite Special:Diff/719076091, see Talk:Valletta#Spelling_Valetta/Valletta vice-versa > vice versa - many left unfixed since such a minor change vittel > vittle - found one, but that was a spelling error made by a pig
W	April 2010	2 weeks	1200
	January 2015	2 weeks	2100	wanna > want to - Not done, far too common in song titles, lyrics, quotes wass > was - Searched for lowercase only webcasted > webcast -- Not done, not convinced wich > which - 100 fixes, 300 false positives womens > women's - 750 fixes, in titles etc. only where verifiable wont > won't - 100 fixes, 1000 false positives ws > was - 150 fixes, 6000 false positives
	November 2016	1 week	820	walla > voilà - Two fixes, to Wala and Wallah, 3000 false positives wholistic > holistic - Not done, some dictionaries allow it
	August 2018	1 week	940	walla > voilà - One fix, to walls, 3000 false positives
	September 2020	1 week	700	walla > voilà - Omit next time, not worth the effort
	September 2022	1 week	800
	March 2025	1 week	720
X	April 2010	1 day	60
	February 2015	1 day	175
	November 2016	1 day	75
	August 2018	1 day	90
	September 2020	1 day	50
	September 2022	1 day	40
	April 2025	1 day	25
Y	May 2010	1 day	60
	February 2015	1 day	75	ya'll > y'all - Not done, too many quotes and song titles
	November 2016	1 day	50
	August 2018	1 day	50
	September 2020	1 day	50
	September 2022	1 day	30
	April 2025	1 day	25
Z	May 2010	1 day	40
	February 2015	1 day	20
	November 2016	1 day	2
	September 2018	1 day	8
	September 2020	1 day	8
	September 2022	1 day	8	Ziegfield > Ziegfeld - no longer in the list, but checked anyway
	April 2025	1 day	7
Repetitions	May 2010	1 month	3500	Using only the Google search, so I must have missed many.
Grammar and Misc	June 2010	19 months	70000	current flow > current - Abandoned after this discussion in January 1 > on January 1 - This single line took three months try and > try to - Abandoned after this discussion. c. 10K occurrences, so rather daunting anyway up until > until - Not attempted; appears to be a style issue rather than a clear grammar error. c. 14K occurrences, too many to tackle will likely > will probably - Not attempted; appears to be a style issue rather than a clear grammar error. Only 2K occurrences, so I may get round to it Dates - Not attempted; huge tasks, gradually being dealt with by the general fixes Hyphens - Not attempted; not clearly defined, and too minor to tackle in my opinion

Repeated words

The the

The regular expressions are part of the T list

I like to scan for "the the" errors whenever I download a new database dump. My regular expression searches for

Either "The" or "the", followed by "the"
Perhaps with quotes or apostrophes in between
- ...said it was the "the greatest thing since sliced bread"
- ...announced the the sale of the century
Perhaps where the second "the" is an article title or in a piped link
- ...the worst outrage since the [[the Troubles]]
- ...did well in the [[1969–70 NBA season|the previous season]]

I don't search for "The The" or "the The" where the second "The" is uppercase. I used to, but after a while I couldn't decide whether "The The Who tour..." or "...the The Times reporter..." looked wrong or not.

More generally

The settings files are here: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

After each "List of common misspellings", I've been scanning for repeated words beginning with that letter. Here is the main part of the regexp for the letter "U"...


\b[Uu](?<!https?://[\w\.\,\:\/\?\&\%\+\=\-\#_]+)([a-z]+)(\s|’|'|`|"|\]\]|\[\[(?!Category:)[^\[\]\|]*\||\[\[(?!Category:)(?=[^\[\]\|]*\]\]))+u\1\b

...which searches for a word beginning with "U" or "u", followed by the same word beginning with "u". I found that a search for two uppercase words found too many false positives in book/film/song titles. The words may appear inside wikilinks and may be separated by various kinds of quote mark.

The main false positives are species names. I began by telling the database scanner to skip any article containing a {{Taxobox}} or {{Automatic taxobox}}, and added a rule that guessed that any Latin-like word ending was a false positive. I later decided this was a mistake, and now deal with these more thoroughly.

Many other false positives turn up, so I add additional rules as needed.