The English writing assistant for people who think in Japanese.
Grammarly was made for native English writers. WriteNative is made for you: it explains every suggestion in Japanese, shows what each word means and how to say it, and turns what you write in Japanese into natural English, in any app on your Mac.
Explanations in Japanese, not just corrections
A red underline tells you something is wrong. It does not tell you why, and next week you make the same mistake. Click any WriteNative underline and the card explains the reason in Japanese: a missing article, a tense that does not match, a word that works in Japanese but not in English.
Each suggested word comes with its meaning in this sentence in Japanese ("received" → 受け取った) and its pronunciation, so you learn the word while you fix it.
Write in Japanese, send English
Press ⌥ twice with nothing selected and write what you mean in Japanese. The English appears as you type, written the way a colleague would say it rather than word for word, and goes in at your cursor in Slack, Mail, Notion or the browser.
Mistakes Japanese speakers often make in English
Japanese speakers tend to make the same few mistakes in English, and each is easy to avoid once you know the reason. WriteNative's card gives that reason in Japanese.
- Articles. Japanese has no a, an or the, so they go missing or appear where they should not.
- Singular and plural. Japanese does not mark whether you are sending "the document" or "the documents"; English does.
- Dropped subjects. A subject Japanese leaves out is required in English.
- Katakana false friends. クレーム is a complaint, not a claim; マンション is an apartment, not a mansion; スマート means slim in Japanese but clever in English.
- Email set phrases translated literally. お世話になっております and よろしくお願いします have no direct English equivalent; in an English email, politeness comes from how you phrase the request.
| WriteNative | Grammarly | |
|---|---|---|
| Reason for each suggestion | In Japanese | Short labels in English |
| Word meanings and pronunciation | In Japanese | No |
| Write in Japanese, get English at the cursor | Yes | Separate translation step |
| Typos fixed automatically as you type | Yes, in native Mac apps | No |
| Runs entirely on your Mac | Yes, with On-device | No |
Where it works
Mail, Messages, Notes, Slack, Notion, text boxes in Chrome and most other apps with a text field. WeChat, QQ and WeCom are deliberately left untouched: they react badly to other apps reading or typing into them.
Questions
- Is the app itself in Japanese?
- Yes. The Mac app and this website are in Japanese, along with eight other languages.
- Does Grammarly work for Japanese speakers?
- Grammarly gives suggestions in more than 20 languages, Japanese included, but the notes on its English suggestions are short labels in English. WriteNative explains English suggestions in Japanese and turns what you write in Japanese into English.
- Is it free?
- Spelling and automatic typo fixes are free without an account. A free account adds 30 paragraph checks and 5 rewrites or translations a day. Pro is unlimited and starts with a 7-day free trial.
- Does it work on Windows or iPhone?
- No. WriteNative is a Mac app for macOS 14 or later.
Write English the way you mean it.
Free to download. Explanations in Japanese from the first underline.