Before You Send
Paste a message and this page marks what its reader could misread. It checks every date against the calendar, works out the exact day behind “next Friday” or “within 5 days”, and marks the dates, times and numbers that mean one thing in your country and another in theirs. It is not a grammar checker and does not replace one.
Read it the way your reader will
Runs in your browser. Your text is not sent anywhere or stored. The three choices above are remembered on this device.
What it reads
- A weekday beside a date. “Tuesday 13 November” and “Tue 13/11” are checked against the calendar. If the two disagree, one of them is wrong, and your reader cannot tell which. Beside a day number alone (“Wed the 22nd”) it asks which month you mean.
- Days named from today. “Tomorrow”, “next Friday”, “by Friday”, “within 5 days” and “until the 16th” are turned into the dates they stand for, counted from the day you send the message. Where a phrase has two readings you get both dates.
- Dates and numbers in digits. 3/4/2027 is 3 April to a British reader and March 4 to an American one. 1.500 is fifteen hundred in Germany and one and a half in Britain.
- Times. “12pm” and “midnight on Friday” are marked for everyone. Once you say where your reader is, a time with no place attached is converted to their clock on the day in question, so you can write both.
- Words with two meanings. Sanction, oversight, table, moot, biweekly and a few more.
- A request that never arrives, and things left in from a template. “I just wanted to check in”, “[Name]”, “TBC”.
- Slips a spellchecker passes. A doubled word, “would of”, “login” used as a verb, and one American spelling in a British text.
A worked example
This message was checked on Thursday 8 October 2026. The day matters, because “next Friday” is counted from the day you send.
Hi Dana,
The review meeting is on Tuesday 14 November 2026 at 12pm. Please send the figures by next Friday, and the signed form within 5 days.
The invoice of 3/4/2027 is still open.
Regards,
Sam
The page marks five things in it.
- “Tuesday 14 November 2026”. 14 November 2026 is a Saturday, not a Tuesday. This is the only one it calls wrong.
- “12pm”. Noon or midnight? Readers take it both ways.
- “next Friday”. Friday 9 October to some readers and Friday 16 October to others. It gives both dates so that you can write the one you mean.
- “within 5 days”. Calendar days or working days?
- “3/4/2027”. Two different days: 3 April to a British reader, March 4 to an American one.
How it was tested
We ran the check over 85,123 real work emails and read what it marked, three times over, until every weekday it called wrong was wrong. It ended with 34 emails in which the weekday and the date disagree, and what those 34 show is written up separately. The rule that came out of it: where a phrase has an innocent reading, the check keeps quiet, so it will miss some things, and what it does mark is worth your attention.
What it cannot do
It matches patterns. It does not understand your message, so it cannot know that the meeting is really on Wednesday, that the price is wrong, or that the attachment is missing. It knows no public holidays, so a count of working days ignores them. It reads English only. A clean result means that none of its patterns appeared, which is less than it sounds, so read the message once more yourself.
Nothing you paste leaves your browser. Where your reader is, which way round you write dates and whether to underline sound-alike words are remembered on your device and nowhere else.
Questions about Before you send
Is it free, and is my message uploaded?
It is free and needs no account. The message is read by code in your browser. It is not sent to us and it is not stored.
Does it check spelling and grammar?
Only a few slips that a spellchecker passes, such as a doubled word, “would of”, “login” used as a verb, and one American spelling in a British text. It is not a grammar checker.
How does it know where my reader is?
You tell it. Once you choose where your reader is, a time with no place attached is converted to their clock. Until you do, no time is converted. Forms such as “12pm” and 3/4/2027 are marked for everyone.
Which languages does it read?
English only.
Articles on the same mistakes
- One in 34 Emails With a Weekday and a Date Gets One of Them Wrong: the count behind the calendar check.
- Words Your Reader Can Take Two Ways: “by Friday”, “biweekly”, “sanction” and the wording that has one reading.
- How to Write Numbers and Dates for Readers in Other Countries: how thirteen countries write the same date and number.
- What an Out-of-Office Message Needs to Say: “away until the 16th” and other date wording that leaves a sender guessing.
To check a draft against rules of your own, such as one spelling and one date format, use Voice & Standards. The other tools are on the Tools page.
