diff --git a/tools/spellcheck.sh b/tools/spellcheck.sh
index 7a51a18d..182f32cb 100755
--- a/tools/spellcheck.sh
+++ b/tools/spellcheck.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-aspell check --mode=texinfo $(dirname $0)/../doc/ledger3.texi
+aspell --lang=en_US.UTF-8 check --mode=texinfo $(dirname $0)/../doc/ledger3.texi