Grammar Apps for Android That Correct You or Teach You
Gboard and Samsung Keyboard can already check your grammar. Past that, Grammarly works across your apps and the British Council teaches the rules for free.
A grammar checker corrects what you have just written, and a learning app teaches you the rule so that you stop making the mistake. Decide which one you are after before you install anything, because the keyboard already on your phone may cover the first, and for everyday messages that is all you need.
Grammar check in Gboard and Samsung Keyboard
Gboard, Google’s keyboard, has had grammar correction since 2022. Google’s announcement described it as more than a spell check and said it works entirely on the device.
Some phones get more. Gboard’s help pages describe a set of writing tools with a Proofread option, which corrects grammar and spelling in the text you have written, next to options that rephrase or shorten it. English is supported for India, the UK, Australia, Canada and the US. The catch is the phone list: Google names six Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 models and a few recent phones from Honor, Motorola, OnePlus, OPPO, POCO, realme, vivo and Xiaomi. There is also a Fix it button that corrects typos, grammar and punctuation in one tap, which Google’s help page limits to English in the US.
To see what your own phone offers, tap the features menu at the top of the keyboard, then More, Settings and Text correction. Google’s writing tools page has the full list of supported phones.
On Galaxy phones the tool is Writing assist, which some models call Chat assist. Type your message, tap the three-star icon on the keyboard’s toolbar and tap Spelling and grammar. The corrected text appears, and Replace swaps it in. Samsung says the feature is on select phones and tablets running One UI 6.1 or later, and that its basic Galaxy AI features are free. Its Writing assist guide has the full steps.
Google Docs is less help than it looks. The Android app has a Spellcheck tool: open the document, tap Edit, then More, then Spellcheck. Google’s help page for it describes spelling suggestions only, so do not count on it for grammar.
Grammarly and three other checkers
Add Grammarly for emails and longer writing, in any app, the word processors on your phone included. Its listing says it works with any Android keyboard, such as Gboard or SwiftKey, so you keep the one you have. Grammarly’s user guide describes a floating widget that appears when you tap a text field and shows suggestions as you type. It needs Android 9 or later and has no ads.
The free version covers grammar, spelling and punctuation, with a short explanation for each correction. Tone, clarity and vocabulary suggestions are listed under Premium. The listing also carries a notice that the older Grammarly Keyboard for Android is being discontinued.
QuillBot is closer to a rewriting tool that also checks grammar, and translates as well. Its listing describes a keyboard, a floating widget that works across apps and a built-in editor, and says you create an account to start. Two paraphrase modes are free and eight more are Premium. It has no ads.
Ginger Writer, from GingerSoftware Inc., is the paste-in kind, with no ads. You type or paste text into the app, it marks the mistakes, and you accept the corrections. It lets you choose US or UK English. Unlimited grammar and spelling checks are listed under Premium, so expect a cap on the free version. The same company has Ginger Keyboard, which checks whole sentences as you type and carries ads.
LangTool is the plain option for an occasional check with nothing to pay. It is a front end, from a developer called optaDroid, for the open-source LanguageTool checker. You pick one of more than ten languages, enter your text, and it highlights mistakes with suggested fixes. There are no ads and nothing to buy.
Where your text goes
Grammarly’s listing says it uses Android’s accessibility permission to process the text you write in other apps, and LangTool’s says it sends your text to the LanguageTool server, so LangTool needs a connection. If you would sooner nothing left the phone, or want an offline grammar checker, Gboard’s built-in grammar correction is the one Google says runs on the device.
Apps that teach English grammar
LearnEnglish Grammar from the British Council is the place to begin if English is your second language. It has four levels from beginner to advanced. Each has more than 600 activities across about 25 topics, such as the simple past, question tags and conditionals, with separate Practice and Test sections. The listing says content that used to be paid is now free. Google Play still shows ads and in-app purchases on it.
Johnny Grammar Word Challenge, also from the British Council and free with ads, is a quiz against the clock: as many grammar, spelling and vocabulary questions as you can answer in 60 seconds, at three levels of difficulty. It tells you why a wrong answer was wrong.
To find your weak spots, use English Grammar Test, from SevenLynx, which is aimed at intermediate and upper-intermediate learners. It has two levels of 30 tests, 20 questions each, and explains every answer you get wrong. Afterwards it shows which areas of grammar need more work. It is free with ads and in-app purchases.
English Grammar Book from TalkEnglish is a set of 138 short lessons with examples and quizzes, also free with ads. You can go through them in order from easy to hard, or by type, such as nouns, articles or verb tenses. An in-app purchase removes the ads.
Khan Academy is not a grammar app, but grammar is one of the subjects it teaches, with videos and exercises. It is free, with no ads label and no purchases on Google Play, and you can download lessons to watch offline. We would point students and people brushing up here, and beginners in English to the British Council app. Setting work for a whole class is a different job, and that is where the apps for teachers come in.
English Grammar in Use, the Cambridge app based on Raymond Murphy’s book, no longer turns up on Google Play, and it is not among the apps on Cambridge University Press & Assessment’s developer page. Several apps from other developers now use the same name. They are not Cambridge’s.
A rule book: Oxford Grammar and Punctuation
This one, from MobiSystems, is for looking up a rule, if you are willing to pay after the trial. Oxford Grammar and Punctuation explains more than 250 grammar and punctuation rules in alphabetical order, with real examples, and settles questions such as “that” or “which” and “its” or “it’s”.
Read the listing before you rely on it. The free download is a 30-day trial with ads. Buying the full version unlocks it for good, removes the ads and adds an offline mode.
