How to correctly set the spellfile in VIM?

Question

I'm trying to use spellchecker in vim; if I want to add a word to the internal dictionary (so that it is not highlighted as wrong) by the zg command, it says "option spellfile is not set".

I tried to type :set spellfile=PATH.../.vim.spell,

but I always get "Invalid argument: spellfile=PATH.../.vim.spell". Any hint please?

I'm using linux Ubuntu 12.04.

Thanks for improving my formatting, I'm new at this forum. – Peter Franek Jun 05 '14 at 07:51 — Peter Franek, Jun 05 '14 at 07:51

score 20 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 05 '14 at 07:54

You cannot choose an arbitrary name. :help 'spellfile' says:

It must end in ".{encoding}.add".

So, use a syntax like this (and ensure that the spell directory exists):

:set spellfile=~/.vim/spell/en.utf-8.add

For encoding, check :set encoding? (Technically, it's the buffer-local 'fileencoding' setting, but that most defaults to the former.)

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 07 '17 at 08:30

10

Maybe you should just do mkdir ~/.vim.

By default, the spell files are stored there. But if vim could not find that folder, it will complain with this error message.

answered Dec 07 '17 at 08:30

Jagd

181
1
4

In my case the ~/.vim folder was owned by root for some reason, causing the issue – Hamy Mar 26 '19 at 17:18

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 06 '21 at 16:15

0

I had the same problem. It was caused by surrounding the path with single quotes in my rc file. Remove the single quotes.

answered Sep 06 '21 at 16:15

StevieD

6,925
2
25
45

How to correctly set the spellfile in VIM?

3 Answers3