Google LLC today rolled out a new feature called Grammar Suggestions to its G Suite productivity tools.

Grammar Suggestions uses machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence, to recognize and fix errors relating to style and syntax.

First made available in preview via an early adopter program last July, it helps users to understand things such as when to use “a” or “an,” “affect” instead of “effect,” “there” or “their” and so on. The feature also fixes misspellings and can even help with more complex things such as subordinate clauses in sentences.

“If you’re working against deadlines to create documents daily, having correct grammar probably isn’t the first thing on your mind,” Vishnu Sivaji, product manager at G Suite, wrote in a blog post. “And when it is, it seems there’s almost always a contested debate about what is correct,” even among professionals. [Editor’s note: No debate about that.]

G Suite users will see recommendations from Grammar Suggestions appear inline in their documents as squiggly blue lines under erroneous sentences. They can choose to accept or dismiss these recommendations with a simple right click, or even choose to review “more suggestions” if they desire. Other recommendations for fixing grammar and spelling will appear when users run a check via the Tools menu, Google said.

Sivaji said Google has worked hard to get Grammar Suggestions just right. It worked with professional linguists to build a machine learning model that incorporates the “complexity and nuance” of grammar correction, he said.

“Grammar … can vary based on the language, region, style and more,” he said. “We worked closely with linguists to decipher the rules for the machine translation model and used this as the foundation of automatic suggestions in your Docs, all powered by [machine learning].”

Grammar Suggestions will roll out to G Suite Basic, Business and Enterprise customers starting March 5, but it may take up to 15 days before all users receive the update. G Suite for Education, G Suite Enterprise for Education and G Suite for Nonprofits users will not be getting the update at this time.

Image: Google