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Jonas Žvilius

“Extra Coffin Olive Oil”: 50 Times Autocorrect Had A Mind Of Its Own (New Pics)

Im (Person)

It often feels like there is some unwritten cosmic rule, that the more important the recipient of one’s text, say the new boss, a research advisor or perhaps a mother-in-law, the more it feels like one’s autocorrect is out to get you. If you ever felt like you are alone in this struggle, it can be helpful to see that it happens all the time.

The “Autocorrect Fails” Facebook page is dedicated to gathering and sharing some of the most hilarious times this little spelling tool ended up causing confusion, or worse (purse?) So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote the pest examples and be sure to share your own thoughts in the comments down below.

More info: Facebook

#1 Children In Salad

Children in salad

#2 Asked My Husband About Dinner Plans. He Had An Interesting Declaration In Response

#3 This Is By Far The Best Text To Talk Fail I've Ever Had. I Went To Say, "Just To Let You Know, I'll Be There In Twenty Ish Minutes"

Autocorrect is simultaneously one of humanity's greatest technological achievements and the reason your boss thinks you're having a "ducking" breakdown. This feature, which lives rent-free in every smartphone and has ruined more text conversations than we can count, operates on a fascinating combination of algorithms, probability, and what can only be described as a deep-seated desire to embarrass you at the worst possible moment.

The technology behind autocorrect relies primarily on something called natural language processing and predictive text algorithms. Essentially, your phone maintains a massive database of words and analyzes patterns in language to guess what you're trying to type. It looks at the letters you've hit, calculates the probability of what word you intended based on common usage and context, and makes its best guess.

#4 That Escalated

#5 Dating Apps Be Like 👀

#6 Personally, I Don't Think I'd Try Them

When you type "helo," it recognizes that "hello" is vastly more common and helpfully corrects your spelling. This works brilliantly until you're trying to type a friend's name, a technical term, or literally anything that isn't in its dictionary, at which point autocorrect becomes your worst enemy.

#7 Aluminium Group

#8 Nooo. That's Not What I Meant ... There Is No Way The EU Would Be That Discriminatory

#9 I Never Even Use That Word Outside Of "Adopt Don't Shop" Context, So Your Guess Is As Good As Mine

The system uses what researchers call a "noisy channel model," which assumes that humans are essentially terrible typists who constantly make mistakes. It's not wrong, but it's also not particularly flattering. The algorithm considers factors like which keys are close together on the keyboard, common spelling errors, and the frequency of word usage in the language. This is why "teh" always becomes "the" but your attempt to type "ducking" becomes something much more profane, because let's be honest, people use that other word significantly more often in text messages.

#10 Good Wages Are Hard To Come By

#11 Them Plumbers Give The Best Estrogen

#12 Homeless Whipped Cream

Modern autocorrect has gotten more sophisticated with machine learning, meaning your phone actually learns from your typing patterns over time. This sounds great until you realize that your phone has learned all your typos, weird abbreviations, and that one time you tried to type something in a language you don't actually speak.

#13 I Should Hope Not!

#14 I Actually Wanna Jump Off A Bridge

#15 Conversation Between Me And My Fella

The predictive text feature also considers the words around your current word, trying to understand context. When you type "I'm going to the," it knows "store" or "park" is more likely than "pterodactyl," which is statistically accurate but shows a disappointing lack of imagination.

#16 Chick-Fil-A!!!

#17 Thanks A Lot Autocorrect! 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ Well, It Was Mother's Day 😁

#18 Tw For Mention Of Spiders. Also Free Meme With This Autocorrect Fail 😆

The real problems arise when autocorrect encounters proper nouns, slang, technical jargon, or new words that haven't made it into the dictionary yet. Your phone has no idea that "yeet" is a word people actually use, so it'll change it to "yet" while you're trying to sound cool and current in a text to your teenage nephew.

#19 Pig Delivery

#20

#21 I Didn't Realize I Was In Such A Goth Shop

I didn't realize I was in such a goth shop.

Names are particularly treacherous territory. Try texting someone named "Sanjay" and watch autocorrect insist you meant "Sunday" approximately forty-seven times before it finally accepts that yes, you do know someone with that name.

#22 I Just Came Across This Old Text With My Mom. Makes Me Cry-Laugh Every Time

#23 Asking For Tshirt Sizes For A Bar Crawl. Double C!

#24 So There's Been Storms In FL And I Got A Surge And My Router Blew

Got a new one today, set it all up then txtd everyone in the house the new sign on for the Wi-Fi and THIS happens.. Pitties because we have pitbulls. I always name my router this, even named a boat this once lol

Regional variations and multiple languages throw additional wrenches into the system. British English and American English have different spellings, and if you switch between languages, autocorrect can have what can only be described as a complete identity crisis. Some phones now support multiple language keyboards simultaneously, which works until you're trying to type in Spanish and your phone decides mid-sentence that you've switched to English and starts "correcting" perfectly good Spanish words into English nonsense.

#25 Hilarious Conversation With Mother 🤣

#26 Found In A Family Tips Group. This Mum Was Messaging Her Kid's Teacher

#27 This Was A Local Post. I Laughed So Hard. Autocorrect Changed "My Husband Is In Princess Anne By The Courthouse" To This

This was a local post. I laughed so hard. Autocorrect changed "My husband is in Princess Anne by the Courthouse" to this.

Perhaps most frustratingly, autocorrect often fails at the exact moment you need it most, like when you're typing quickly because you're running late. The faster you type, the more autocorrect assumes you're making mistakes, which creates a vicious cycle of corrections and over-corrections that can turn a simple "sounds good" into "sounds food" and then into something about giraffes because at that point your phone has given up entirely.

#28 Conversation With My Mom Today Talking About Her Husband

#29 Well This Just Happened To Me. Omg

#30

Despite its flaws, autocorrect does catch countless genuine typos every day. We just never notice those successes because our attention goes straight to the spectacular failures, like when it changes "I'm on my way" to "I'm on my wat" to "I'm on my cat" and you don't notice until after you hit send.

#31 Thank God This Was To My Ex, So It Was Kinda True 😂

#32 My Poor Friend Tonight To Her Mother

#33 I’m Not Sure Why My Phone Decided “Pizza” Was A Better Choice Than “You”

#34 Omg! Telling My Bestie To Call Me When "You Go Get" Her Kid From The School Bus!

Omg! Telling my bestie to call me when "You GO GET" her kid from the school bus!

#35 🤨 Ummmm…

#36 Double Fail

#37 Just Wanted To Let My Fella Know I Arrived Home And Am Safe To Message. I'm Not In Houston Nor Is The City In My Door! I'm In Dublin Ireland

#38 Autocorrect Wins Again

#39 Text To My 40 Something Daughter Today On A First Date. It’s Been Brutal For Her The Past Few Years. Where Are All The “Normal” Men???? Helicopter Parenting Midlife Children

#40 🤷🏼‍♀️

#41 My Autocorrect Correct Doesn't Like The Name Of North Side Suburbs Of

I was on a steam rail tour and a friend was waiting a short distance away to get some locomotive photos as we. I was letting him know where we were passing.