Automattic / Automattic/harper

Should flag when people mix up "straight" and "strait" (or their plurals)

Open
#3,038 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
enhancement harper-core linting
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
15.4k
Forks
627
Avg merge
1d 15h
Merged PRs (30d)
106

Description

I just read a comment on the Internet referring to "Straights of Hormuz".

There are two problems:
1. "straight" means "not bent", "strait" is a body of water
2. Most bodies of water, including Hormuz use the singular "Strait" but a few use the plural "Straits", or both, like the Strait(s) of Magellan

We should at least correct "straight" and "straights" to "strait" when it's referring to a body of water.
We could also maintain a curated list of which ones use singular vs plural.

That's easy when the mistake is part of a proper noun, but will be harder in cases like "looking out across the straight".

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

The issue names no files, tests, or entry points. Start by locating the existing spelling and proper-noun rule implementation and its tests; completion should cover singular and plural waterway names while avoiding corrections when “straight” means “not bent.”

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.