Understand the English email you got, and reply to it well.

Translation is not the hard part

A translator tells you what the words say. What you usually need to know is what the sender wants, how firm it is, and how to answer without sounding blunt or too stiff. "Could you take a look when you get a chance?" and "Please review by EOD" ask for the same thing with very different urgency.

WriteNative reads the message the way a colleague would and tells you, in your language: what it is (a request, a question, news), how it sounds, and whether it needs a reply.

How it works

Nothing to copy, no website to open:

• Select the English someone sent you, in Mail, Outlook, Slack or a web page.
• Press ⌥ twice. The panel opens on Explain: labels at the top, then the explanation in your first language.
• Pick one of up to three ways to reply, written in your language, or write your own answer in your language.
• WriteNative writes the reply in natural English. Copy it into your reply, or replace the selection when it is in a field you can edit.

Replies that sound right

The reply follows where you are writing: more formal in Mail and Outlook, lighter in Slack. Before you send, select your reply and press ⌥ twice again to make it friendlier, shorter or more formal, or use Polite no and Gentle nudge in Mail, Outlook and Slack when you need to decline or follow up.

If your reply has a mistake, it is underlined like anything else you type, with the reason in your language.

What it does not do

WriteNative is a Mac app. It does not translate whole documents, PDFs or web pages, and it does not run on Windows or phones. Explain needs the cloud, so it is off while "Only on this Mac" is on.

Questions

How can I understand and answer an English email if English is not my first language?

WriteNative, a Mac app, explains a selected English email in your first language (what the sender wants, how it sounds, whether it needs a reply) and offers up to three replies that it writes in natural English. It works in Mail, Outlook, Slack and the browser; it does not translate whole documents.

Is this different from pasting the email into a translator or ChatGPT?

The answer is similar in spirit, but you never leave the email: select, press ⌥ twice, and the explanation and the reply appear next to it. It also explains tone and idioms rather than translating word for word.

Which languages can the explanation be in?

Your first language: English, Simplified or Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, German or French. WriteNative guesses it from your Mac's languages and input methods; you can change it in Settings.

Is the email stored?

No. The text you select is sent, explained and discarded, never kept or used for training.