In general, this disclosure describes techniques for providing spelling suggestions in response to user input. One example method comprises receiving user input via a keyboard associated with a computing device, the input specifying a sequence of characters of a word the user wishes to enter into a text-based application of the computing device. The method further comprises generating suggestion words based on the sequence of characters and on an alternate sequence of characters, where the alternate sequence of characters is generated by replacing characters in the sequence of characters with alternate characters corresponding to keys proximately located on the keyboard to keys corresponding to characters in the sequence of characters. In one example, the sequence of characters includes non-letter characters such as a DELETE character, the method further including replacing the DELETE character with a letter corresponding to a key adjacent to the DELETE key on the keyboard.