rules and settings

Minimal Pairs: rules and settings

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Utility Programs > Minimal Pairs > rules and settings

Rules

Insertions (abxcd v. abcd)

This rule looks for 1 extra letter which may be inserted, e.g. HOWWEVER

Swapped letters (abcd v. acbd)

This rule looks for letters which have got swapped, e.g. HOVEWER

1 letter difference (abcd v. abxd)

This rule looks for a 1 letter difference, e.g. HOWEXER

Anagrams too (abcd v. adbc)

This rule looks for the same letters in a different order, e.g. HWVROEE

Settings:

end letters to ignore if at last letter:

This rule allows you to specify any letters to ignore if at the end of the word, e.g. if you specify "s", the possibility of a typo when comparing ELEPHANT and ELEPHANTS will not be reported.

minimum start-of-word match

This setting (default =1) allows you to assume that when looking for minimal pairs there is a part of each at the beginning which matches perfectly. For example, when considering ALEADY, the program probably doesn't need to look beyond words beginning with A for minimal pairs. If the setting is 1, it will not find BLEADY as a minimal pair. To check all words, take the setting down to 0. The program will be 26 times slower as a result!

minimum word length

This setting specifies the minimum word length for the program to consider the possibility there is a typo. The default is 5, which means 4-letter words will be simply ignored. This is to speed up processing, and because most typos probably occur in longer words.

all words starting with …

If you choose this option, the program will ignore the next setting (max. word frequency). Here you can type in a sequence such as F,G,H and if so, the program will take all words beginning F or G or H (whatever their frequency) and look for minimal pairs based on the rules and settings above.

max. word frequency

(ignored if "all words starting with" is checked) How frequent can a typo be? This will depend on how much text your word-list is based on. The default is 10, which means that any word which appears 11 times is assumed to be OK, not a typo.

Factory Defaults (restores default values)

Save Current Settings (saves your choices of file and rules)

Get Saved Settings (restores your last-saved choices)