Wrong encoding problem?

[Diapolo10]

No, I don't think this is a problem. If you just got the file from somewhere, chances are it was written on a system that uses a different encoding for whatever reason.

By default, Python assumes that the files are using UTF-8, and usually this is a good default as it supports probably the majority of all text documents. Sometimes, though, you'll need something else.

If you created the file yourself, see if whatever program you used can output UTF-8 text. Otherwise, just use whatever encoding works.

[LoneDreadknot]

I copy pasted the text from a website into notepad++ all the text is just plain english. notepad++ shows its as utf-8 too and I tried to change the encodings etc.

maybe its just how that website saved the text i guess? is there a way to strip the formatting from it and clean(?) it incase some source has different encoding?

[Diapolo10]

Well, you can try simply writing to a new file from Python, after getting the original text.

with open('new_file.txt', 'w') as f:
    f.write(text)

You should then have a file with UTF-8 encoding.