The English writing assistant for people who think in Portuguese.
Grammarly was made for native English writers. WriteNative is made for you: it explains every suggestion in Portuguese, shows what each word means and how to say it, and turns what you write in Portuguese into natural English, in any app on your Mac.
Explanations in Portuguese, 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 Brazilian Portuguese: a preposition carried over from Portuguese, a tense that does not match, a word that looks the same in both languages but means something else.
Each suggested word comes with its meaning in this sentence in Portuguese ("received" → recebido) and its pronunciation, so you learn the word while you fix it.
Write in Portuguese, send English
Press ⌥ twice with nothing selected and write what you mean in Portuguese. 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.
The mistakes Portuguese speakers make in English
Most of them come from Portuguese itself, which is why a reason in Portuguese helps more than a label in English. A few that come up again and again:
When the card explains that "pretend" means fingir and the word you wanted is "intend", or that "informations" has no plural in English, the correction sticks.
- False friends: "pretend" is not pretender (that is "intend" or "plan"), "actually" is not atualmente ("currently"), "assist" is not assistir ("watch"), "parents" is not parentes ("relatives").
- Translated structures: "I have 30 years" for "I am 30", "depends of" for "depends on", "explain me" for "explain to me".
- Tenses: "I work here since 2020" where English needs "I have worked here since 2020".
- Uncountable nouns: "informations", "advices", "feedbacks".
- A dropped subject: "Is important to…" where English needs "It is important to…".
WriteNative and Grammarly for Portuguese speakers
Grammarly is a good checker. It was simply not built around a first language other than English.
| WriteNative | Grammarly | |
|---|---|---|
| Reason for each suggestion | In Portuguese | Short labels in English |
| Word meanings and pronunciation | In Portuguese | No |
| Write in Portuguese, 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 |
| Windows, phone keyboards, Google Docs | No, Mac only | Yes |
Where it works
Mail, Messages, Notes, Slack, Notion, text boxes in Chrome such as Gmail, and most other apps with a text field. Pages, Keynote and terminals work through the shortcut. It does not work inside Google Docs.
Questions
- Is the app in Portuguese?
- Yes. The Mac app and this website are in Brazilian Portuguese, along with eight other languages.
- Does Grammarly work for Portuguese speakers?
- Grammarly can check English for anyone and now gives suggestions for Portuguese text too, but its explanations stay in short English labels. WriteNative explains English suggestions in Portuguese and turns what you write in Portuguese into English.
- What is free and what is Pro?
- 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.
- Is my text stored?
- No. Cloud checks send only the paragraph you just wrote and keep nothing. With the On-device plan nothing leaves your Mac.
Write English the way you mean it.
Free to download. Explanations in Portuguese from the first underline.