npx skills add ...
npx skills add dpearson2699/swift-ios-skills --skill natural-language
Tokenize, tag, and analyze natural language text using Apple's NaturalLanguage framework and translate between languages with the Translation framework. Use when adding language identification, sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, part-of-speech tagging, text embeddings, or in-app translation to iOS/macOS/visionOS apps.
npx skills add dpearson2699/swift-ios-skills --skill natural-language
Analyze natural language text for tokenization, part-of-speech tagging, named entity recognition, sentiment analysis, language identification, and word/sentence embeddings. Translate text between languages with the Translation framework.
This skill covers two related frameworks: NaturalLanguage (
NLTokenizer,NLTagger,NLEmbedding) for on-device text analysis, and Translation (TranslationSession,LanguageAvailability) for language translation.
Scope boundary: Use this skill after you already have text. It owns
tokenization, language identification, POS/NER tagging, sentiment, embeddings,
custom NLModel classifiers/taggers, and in-app translation. Hand off OCR to
vision-framework, speech-to-text to speech-recognition, UI strings and
locale formatting to ios-localization, and generative summarization or Apple
Intelligence workflows to apple-on-device-ai.
Import NaturalLanguage for text analysis and Translation for language
translation. No special entitlements or capabilities are required for
NaturalLanguage. Translation has split availability: system translation
presentation is iOS 17.4+ / macOS 14.4+, while TranslationSession,
.translationTask(), LanguageAvailability, and batch translation require
iOS 18+ / macOS 15+.
Direct TranslationSession(installedSource:target:) is the non-UI option, but
only when the source and target languages are already installed on device.
NaturalLanguage classes (NLTokenizer, NLTagger) are not thread-safe.
Use each instance from one thread or dispatch queue at a time.
Segment text into words, sentences, or paragraphs with NLTokenizer.
| Unit | Description |
|---|---|
.word | Individual words |
.sentence | Sentences |
.paragraph | Paragraphs |
.document | Entire document |
Use enumerateTokens(in:using:) to detect numeric or emoji tokens.
Detect the dominant language of a string with NLLanguageRecognizer.
Constrain the recognizer to expected languages for better accuracy on short text.
Identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other lexical classes with NLTagger.
| Scheme | Output |
|---|---|
.lexicalClass | Part of speech (noun, verb, adjective) |
.nameType | Named entity type (person, place, organization) |
.nameTypeOrLexicalClass | Combined NER + POS |
.lemma | Base form of a word |
.language | Per-token language |
.sentimentScore | Sentiment polarity score |
Extract people, places, and organizations.
Score text sentiment from -1.0 (negative) to +1.0 (positive).
Measure semantic similarity between words or sentences with NLEmbedding.
Sentence embeddings compare entire sentences.
Show the built-in translation UI with .translationPresentation().
Use .translationTask() for programmatic translations within a view context.
Translate multiple strings in a single session.
These classes are not thread-safe and will produce incorrect results or crash.
NaturalLanguage provides built-in linguistic analysis. Use Core ML for custom
trained models. They complement each other via NLModel.
Not all languages have word or sentence embeddings available on device.
Creating and configuring a tagger is expensive. Reuse it for the same text.
Language detection on short strings (under ~20 characters) is unreliable. Set constraints or hints to improve accuracy.
NLTokenizer and NLTagger instances used from a single threadNLEmbedding availability checked before use (returns nil if unavailable)LanguageAvailability checked before attempting translation.translationTask() used within a SwiftUI view hierarchyclientIdentifier to match responses to requests.joinNames option used with NER to keep multi-word names togetherNLModel, not raw Core MLlet tokenizer = NLTokenizer(unit: .word)
tokenizer.string = text
tokenizer.enumerateTokens(in: text.startIndex..<text.endIndex) { range, attributes in
if attributes.contains(.numeric) {
print("Number: \(text[range])")
}
return true // continue enumeration
}func detectLanguage(for text: String) -> NLLanguage? {
NLLanguageRecognizer.dominantLanguage(for: text)
}
// Multiple hypotheses with confidence scores
func languageHypotheses(for text: String, max: Int = 5) -> [NLLanguage: Double] {
let recognizer = NLLanguageRecognizer()
recognizer.processString(text)
return recognizer.languageHypotheses(withMaximum: max)
}let recognizer = NLLanguageRecognizer()
recognizer.languageConstraints = [.english, .french, .spanish]
recognizer.processString(text)
let detected = recognizer.dominantLanguagefunc tagPartsOfSpeech(in text: String) -> [(String, NLTag)] {
let tagger = NLTagger(tagSchemes: [.lexicalClass])
tagger.string = text
var results: [(String, NLTag)] = []
let range = text.startIndex..<text.endIndex
let options: NLTagger.Options = [.omitPunctuation, .omitWhitespace]
tagger.enumerateTags(in: range, unit: .word, scheme: .lexicalClass, options: options) { tag, tokenRange in
if let tag {
results.append((String(text[tokenRange]), tag))
}
return true
}
return results
}func extractEntities(from text: String) -> [(String, NLTag)] {
let tagger = NLTagger(tagSchemes: [.nameType])
tagger.string = text
var entities: [(String, NLTag)] = []
let options: NLTagger.Options = [.omitPunctuation, .omitWhitespace, .joinNames]
tagger.enumerateTags(
in: text.startIndex..<text.endIndex,
unit: .word,
scheme: .nameType,
options: options
) { tag, tokenRange in
if let tag, tag != .other {
entities.append((String(text[tokenRange]), tag))
}
return true
}
return entities
}
// NLTag values: .personalName, .placeName, .organizationNamefunc sentimentScore(for text: String) -> Double? {
let tagger = NLTagger(tagSchemes: [.sentimentScore])
tagger.string = text
let (tag, _) = tagger.tag(
at: text.startIndex,
unit: .paragraph,
scheme: .sentimentScore
)
return tag.flatMap { Double($0.rawValue) }
}func wordSimilarity(_ word1: String, _ word2: String) -> Double? {
guard let embedding = NLEmbedding.wordEmbedding(for: .english) else { return nil }
return embedding.distance(between: word1, and: word2, distanceType: .cosine)
}
func findSimilarWords(to word: String, count: Int = 5) -> [(String, Double)] {
guard let embedding = NLEmbedding.wordEmbedding(for: .english) else { return [] }
return embedding.neighbors(for: word, maximumCount: count, distanceType: .cosine)
}func sentenceSimilarity(_ s1: String, _ s2: String) -> Double? {
guard let embedding = NLEmbedding.sentenceEmbedding(for: .english) else { return nil }
return embedding.distance(between: s1, and: s2, distanceType: .cosine)
}import SwiftUI
import Translation
struct TranslatableView: View {
@State private var showTranslation = false
let text = "Hello, how are you?"
var body: some View {
Button { showTranslation = true } label: {
Text(text)
}
.buttonStyle(.plain)
.translationPresentation(
isPresented: $showTranslation,
text: text
)
}
}struct TranslatingView: View {
@State private var translatedText = ""
@State private var translationErrorMessage: String?
@State private var configuration: TranslationSession.Configuration?
var body: some View {
VStack {
Text(translatedText)
Button("Translate") {
configuration = .init(source: Locale.Language(identifier: "en"),
target: Locale.Language(identifier: "es"))
}
}
.translationTask(configuration) { session in
do {
let response = try await session.translate("Hello, world!")
await MainActor.run {
translatedText = response.targetText
translationErrorMessage = nil
}
} catch {
let message = error.localizedDescription
await MainActor.run {
translationErrorMessage = message
}
}
}
}
}.translationTask(configuration) { session in
do {
let requests = texts.enumerated().map { index, text in
TranslationSession.Request(sourceText: text,
clientIdentifier: "\(index)")
}
let responses = try await session.translations(from: requests)
for response in responses {
print("\(response.sourceText) -> \(response.targetText)")
}
} catch {
// Handle cancellation, unsupported languages, or download refusal.
}
}let availability = LanguageAvailability()
let status = await availability.status(
from: Locale.Language(identifier: "en"),
to: Locale.Language(identifier: "ja")
)
switch status {
case .installed: break // Ready to translate offline
case .supported: break // Needs download
case .unsupported: break // Language pair not available
}// WRONG
let sharedTagger = NLTagger(tagSchemes: [.lexicalClass])
DispatchQueue.concurrentPerform(iterations: 10) { _ in
sharedTagger.string = someText // Data race
}
// CORRECT
await withTaskGroup(of: Void.self) { group in
for _ in 0..<10 {
group.addTask {
let tagger = NLTagger(tagSchemes: [.lexicalClass])
tagger.string = someText
// process...
}
}
}// WRONG: Trying to do NER with raw Core ML
let coreMLModel = try MLModel(contentsOf: modelURL)
// CORRECT: Use NLTagger for built-in NER
let tagger = NLTagger(tagSchemes: [.nameType])
// Or load a custom Core ML model via NLModel
let nlModel = try NLModel(mlModel: coreMLModel)
tagger.setModels([nlModel], forTagScheme: .nameType)// WRONG: Force unwrap
let embedding = NLEmbedding.wordEmbedding(for: .japanese)!
// CORRECT: Handle nil
guard let embedding = NLEmbedding.wordEmbedding(for: .japanese) else {
// Embedding not available for this language
return
}// WRONG: New tagger per word
for word in words {
let tagger = NLTagger(tagSchemes: [.lexicalClass])
tagger.string = word
}
// CORRECT: Set string once, enumerate
let tagger = NLTagger(tagSchemes: [.lexicalClass])
tagger.string = fullText
tagger.enumerateTags(in: fullText.startIndex..<fullText.endIndex,
unit: .word, scheme: .lexicalClass, options: []) { tag, range in
return true
}// WRONG: Detect language of a single word
let lang = NLLanguageRecognizer.dominantLanguage(for: "chat") // French or English?
// CORRECT: Provide context
let recognizer = NLLanguageRecognizer()
recognizer.languageHints = [.english: 0.8, .french: 0.2]
recognizer.processString("chat")