You have no doubt had the shame of sending a text with a glaring mistake or the experience of trying to figure out why someone is suddenly texting you about ducks. While human error is inevitable, some of the tools we build for ourselves, like autocorrect, don’t always work as intended.
The “Autocorrect Fails” Facebook group is dedicated to those hilarious moments when your phone’s software decides to change a normal text into something very different. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites, and be sure to double-check your spelling before you comment your thoughts below.
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Craigslist For Everything
#streak2
For ages, people have tried to find ways around the simple fact that most people, professionals included, will repeatedly make spelling mistakes in anything they write. This is why editors, proofreaders, and entire software companies like Grammarly still exist. Let’s face it, often we are in a hurry when we need to write something and the result can be all the hilarity we can see here.
The root of many of these issues, as well as better-publicized examples, comes from the simple problem of the spellchecker or autocorrect having an incomplete list of words. One of the most famous examples of this goes all the way back to at least 2007 when multiple people online noticed that many automated spellcheckers only knew the word "cooperation" when it was spelled without the hyphen.
Sorry
I Think That's A Common Mistake
"Probably"
My daughter was once using speech-to-text for a book report. She said "it was Jeremy's..." and it heard "penis gummies". Glad I checked her homework that day!
Older lists of words would only have “co-operation,” so when certain computers saw this word, they believed that it was simply a mistake. And for some reason, the “nearest” word to this mistake was “Cupertino,” the name of a town in California. The result was various, very official documents containing phrases like "South Asian Association for Regional Cupertino" and "presentation on African-German Cupertino".
Sent Some Texts To My Employees After Setting The Shift To Give Them The Rundown For The Night. I Was In A Hurry To Get Out Of There And Didn't Want To Get Stuck On The Phone. I Wanted To Let Him Know They Would Only Have Six Staff Until 6 Pm. Oops. Anonymous Post Bc Of My Job
This made me laugh. I love that the other worker wanted sex, too.
Sorry
Sadly, I want to hear everything, too. I know I'd regret it, though.
Lol
Don't leave the bloody tampon either that's worse then leaving the light on
To this day, this issue is referred to as the “Cupertino effect” which, simply put, is the often hilarious result of a spellchecker not having a word in its dictionary and making an “interesting” substitution. Other famous examples include Routers publishing an article where the "Muttahida Qaumi Movement" became the "Muttonhead Quail Movement."
Newbie Here! I Sent This To My Husband Yesterday. It Was Early And I Was At Work At Tired. I’m Up At 2 Am To Start Work A 3 Am
Well Done
My Brother Was Trying To Text Me That He Would "Be By In A Minute" But His Phone Had Other Plans
Maybe OP shouldn't invite the brother over anymore.
However, the “Cupertino effect” pales in comparison to the “Scunthorpe problem.” I’ll give you a moment to figure it out, it’s in the name. Long story short, the entire town of Scunthorpe struggled to create AOL accounts using their town's name because the site's filters kept detecting profanity.
Here Is Classic One From The Internet
Watch Out For Those Lizards
Message From The Dog Groomers
I love that they backed up the corrected version with photographic evidence!
This issue is quite persistent, as lists of “banned words” are not static and constantly evolve. At the same time, this means more, unrelated words, like Scunthorpe, end up getting incorrectly flagged. The solution tends to be constant human intervention, something that spellcheck was invented to prevent.
Omg
Fried shrimp would be excellent at a wake. It's all about the finger food.
This Is A Text I Sent To My Daughter Last Year...fail
The Most Awkward Meeting After This
Other famous examples include shiitake mushrooms being misspelled, with a missing “i” and this word being marked as profanity. Fortunately, this particular instance has managed to rectify itself, as more people are familiar with the correct spelling of this Japanese word, as food blogging has taken off.
It Happened Again!!!!
Haha
Lol
Similarly, one Twitter (now X) user from Luxembourg, having just created an account, tweeted (an apt use for the verb) “Finally! A pair of great tits (Parus major) has moved into my birdhouse!” and had their account banned almost instantly. Interestingly, upon review, Twitter support declined to unban the account.
Me Trying To Date....yeah This Is Going Well
My phone also likes to "help". Personally, I call it autowrong.
Angel
Hmmm
However, our text messages tend to not fall under such scrutiny, so spellcheck still insists on ducks ducking all over the place, even when not a single bird is present. As always with fails (spellcheck insists on “failure” but we all know it’s something else,) it really depends on where you are sitting. When it happens to you, it’s a tragedy, but hysterical when it happens to someone else.
Asked My Husband About Dinner Plans. He Had An Interesting Declaration In Response
When You’re Having A Conversation With A Base Supervisor From Another Company About Fitted Sheets And There’s The Most Epic Fail Ever
Had This Glorious Disaster Happen The Other Night When Texting A Friend About My Dog Who Was Terrified Of The Fireworks Going Off Nearby. I Was Talking To Her About How He Wouldn't Take Treats From Me, And He Loves Food
More commonly, it’s not so much that we misspell words, but that we over-rely on predictive text. Often it’s great, allowing us to fill in simple emails in moments, to keep some momentum going when writing certain sentences. But if you get used to it, predictive text becomes a crutch, with the writer simply missing the mistakes or misplaced words it gives and leaving it in the text.
Text From My 10 Yr Old!!! I Laughed Way Too Hard At This!
This Definitely Belongs Here
This Was Rather Embarrassing
Unfortunately, there is at least one instance where an autocorrect mistake ended up causing someone’s death when it changed “nutter” to “mutter” for one Lancashire man. While it’s unclear why this word would be so triggering, it instigated an argument that caused the recipient to attack the sender, leading to the former being stabbed in the heart.
Asking My Daughter To Bring Me Red Licorice To The Hospital
Punctuation Is Important
Lmao
When You Talking To Your Client And Auto Correct Gets In The Way!!
Say What?
Personally, I know nothing about Mr. Springsteen but his music, which I like.
Cool
I Had To Join To Share This Classic Conversation Between My 20 Year Old And Myself This Morning. Apparently The Nightclub Offers Krispy Koreans
Autocorrect Seriously Failed Me Today..... Sent This To My Mom.....should Have Said So You Want To Warn Him My Shoulder Feels Like Someone Socked Me Hard
Gonna Go And Do Some Thugs Now
So This Happened To Me While Texting My Wife!
This Is Actually A Real One That Happened Between My Mom And Myself Just The Other Day
Me Trying To Write To My Sick Co Worker And Offering To Get Her Some Of Her Favourite Food From A Texmex Restaurant Called Zombreros
Lol
My Mate Sent Me This Gem
I think it's illegal to ask your employee that question.
An Autocorrect From Me To My Friend. House Mates Mum Was Having A Hysterectomy. And Yes. My Phone Continues To Ruin My Life On A Daily Basis
An Actual Conversation With My Ex. I’m The Blue
New Member, First Post. This Happened A Few Weeks Ago
This Was So Good I Had To Join An Autocorrect Group Just To Share It
Diaries
Haha
Were they talking about their pet vietnamese pot-bellied pig, by any chance?
Lol
My Auto Correct Cracks Me Up
Not Exactly Autocorrect Fail, But A Google Assistant Fail
Husband Is Buying Me New Wellington Boots So I Checked Size And Used Voice Texting
Texting With A Coworker
Nauseous Morning T*ts...i Guess It’s A Thing
Still might be pregnant, though or progressive, pageant, pre-giant, regnant, raining.....
A Friend Of Mine As A Joke Sent Me 80 Rubber Ducks. I Have Two Nephews And A Niece Ages 7, 5 And 3 So I Figured I Would Be Nice And Ask My Sister-In-Law If The Kids Would Like Any
Sure! But, do you have any rubber d***s? Asking for a friend of course...
I Was Trying To Talk Text In Spanish. It Was Supposed To Say Sorry No Hablo Espanol
When You Don’t Proofread
My Sister Had A Great Fail Today!!!
Egg farts come from hens, I've heard Butt they're too embarrassed to admit it
I Still Have No Idea Who Jeff Is
Yup A Tinder Conversation.... So Embarrassing Ha
A British conversation always includes the kiss at the end of each sentence.
Just Accidentally Sent This To My Wife. She’s Now Questioning The Company I Keep While She’s At Work
Guy In Local Group Posted About Some Chickens And Ducks For Free. Safe To Say I Won’t Be Getting Them
An Old Screenshot Of Mine
Texts Between My Brother And My Mom
Come
Lol
So My GF And I Work Night Shift Together But It's Her Night Off
I'm A Waffle House Server And This Is What I Accidentally Sent To My Friend Last Night. I've Been Laughing To Tears Since It Happened. Probably Partially Due To Embarrassment It's So Gross But So Funny
Whoops
Thankfully I Caught This One Before Hitting Send
My Husband And I Talking About Dinner Tonight
My Tenderloin Had An Unwanted Pregnancy
That Awkward Moment When You Catch Up With An Old Friend
Literally Just Now Fml
Definitely A Hard Pass On The Palm Sauce Thx!
Well Duck My Life. Hate New Phones
Conversation With The Police Chief's Wife
Omg
I think I'd go with the pancakes. Less complicated.
Concept For A New Show?
Sent This To My Son Today. Haha!
This Happened Tonight. My Wife Wasn’t Feeling Well
Conversation With My Husband While I Was At Kohl’s. It Was Supposed To Say, “I’m Getting A New Bra.”
Not Something You Wanna Hear From Your Brother
Oops Not What I Meant Lol. I Meant Getting Sick As My Parents Have Covid!
Ever Since The iPhone Update The Other Day My Phone Just Changes Words To Random, Unrelated Words, But I Type So Fast And Hit Send So Fast That It Changes It While I’m Hitting Send. Here Is A Great Example
Conversation Tonight With My 70 Yr Old Neighbour On Her Birthday. Awkward!
I Think Skittles The Candy Was On Their Mind! Lol
Autocorrect
Sometimes You Just Get Sick Of Waiting
Yeah, My Phone Still Wants To Correct Budism To Nudism
Okay
Haha
I Don't Recall Taking This Medication. My Mom Meant Escitalopram (Lexapro)
This is an article that could do without censoring. The fact that you have to pause a second to fill the blanks makes it lose some of it's punch.
I absolutely agree. I heard way worse language in jr high school. Only we didn’t have google then. We had to make a list & make up an excuse to get our parents to drop us off at the public library, where there was an adult dictionary that contained curse words & worty dirds, and then we would write the definition down and share it with our friends 😂😂😂
Load More Replies...I miss the old Damn You Auto Correct website. In the early days this type of thing happened a lot. It was also quite a bit less prudish about what it would show.
Oh yes. I remember going to that website only two times. I loved it but I would laugh so hard my entire body would hurt and I'd feel nauseaus. Lol. I got a nice glimpse of that in this article :)
Load More Replies...Mine "corrects" by choosing the closest French word to what I have typed, which can be hilarious at times.
This is an article that could do without censoring. The fact that you have to pause a second to fill the blanks makes it lose some of it's punch.
I absolutely agree. I heard way worse language in jr high school. Only we didn’t have google then. We had to make a list & make up an excuse to get our parents to drop us off at the public library, where there was an adult dictionary that contained curse words & worty dirds, and then we would write the definition down and share it with our friends 😂😂😂
Load More Replies...I miss the old Damn You Auto Correct website. In the early days this type of thing happened a lot. It was also quite a bit less prudish about what it would show.
Oh yes. I remember going to that website only two times. I loved it but I would laugh so hard my entire body would hurt and I'd feel nauseaus. Lol. I got a nice glimpse of that in this article :)
Load More Replies...Mine "corrects" by choosing the closest French word to what I have typed, which can be hilarious at times.