Introduction - Hugging Face NLP Course

## [](#introduction)Introduction

[![Ask a Question](https://img.shields.io/badge/Ask%20a%20question-ffcb4c.svg?logo=data:image/svg+xml;base64,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)](https://discuss.huggingface.co/t/chapter-6-questions)

In [Chapter 3](/course/chapter3), we looked at how to fine-tune a model on a given task. When we do that, we use the same tokenizer that the model was pretrained with — but what do we do when we want to train a model from scratch? In these cases, using a tokenizer that was pretrained on a corpus from another domain or language is typically suboptimal. For example, a tokenizer that’s trained on an English corpus will perform poorly on a corpus of Japanese texts because the use of spaces and punctuation is very different in the two languages.

In this chapter, you will learn how to train a brand new tokenizer on a corpus of texts, so it can then be used to pretrain a language model. This will all be done with the help of the [🤗 Tokenizers](https://github.com/huggingface/tokenizers) library, which provides the “fast” tokenizers in the [🤗 Transformers](https://github.com/huggingface/transformers) library. We’ll take a close look at the features that this library provides, and explore how the fast tokenizers differ from the “slow” versions.

Topics we will cover include:

-   How to train a new tokenizer similar to the one used by a given checkpoint on a new corpus of texts
-   The special features of fast tokenizers
-   The differences between the three main subword tokenization algorithms used in NLP today
-   How to build a tokenizer from scratch with the 🤗 Tokenizers library and train it on some data

The techniques introduced in this chapter will prepare you for the section in [Chapter 7](/course/chapter7/6) where we look at creating a language model for Python source code. Let’s start by looking at what it means to “train” a tokenizer in the first place.