# Epic spellcheck fails
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 27, 2018, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152 "2018-11-27T11:53:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/1 "2018-11-27T11:53:38Z")
I’m not entirely sure where this topic ought to go, but since it’s mainly about writing, I am guessing it’s a Cafe Society thing.
But at any rate, I happened to be writing yesterday and used the word “genuine” in a sentence, which of course I used to be synonomous with “authentic, sincere, true, (etc)”. But then that niggling red squiggle line appeared under it. I thought I might have made a typo that I just couldn’t spot right away, but looked again and - “genuine” - as it should be spelled. Confused, I went to “Help / Spelling” to see what was wrong.
Spellcheck claimed that it was misspelled that way. It suggested I use “Ginuwine” instead.
No I am not making this up.
I was stunned and had to read it three times, convinced there was something I wasn’t seeing. “_Ginuwine_”??? As far as I can find online, the only use of the spelling “Ginuwine” is as the name of a rap artist. And my spellcheck simply couldn’t recognize the word “genuine” at all. I had to add to my dictionary!
Has anyone else ever been given a spellcheck suggestion that was as glaringly wrong as this?
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/2 "2018-11-27T13:08:02Z")
There is more than one spellchecker in the world. Which one are you using? The one native to Chrome? Word? What version? I just tried Chrome and it spelled “genuine” as _genuine_, no problems. Word (an old version), OK. Maybe someone has played a trick on you and altered your dictionary?
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### Author:  [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/3 "2018-11-27T13:12:52Z")
Have you got the Dictionary option switched to Urban instead of US English?
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/4 "2018-11-27T13:28:08Z")
I’m not sure what program you were using spellcheck in but I’ve found Firefox to be awful. So bad that I often can’t get a word even close enough for spellcheck to give me the correct spelling and I end up using googling my best guess to get the correct spelling.
Something else to keep in mind is that Ginuwine (which firefox is tagging as misspelled), was fairly popular in the mid 90’s. If you were in high school or college during that time, you’ve likely heard Pony. He was also mentioned on a semi-regular basis (and appeared on) Parks and Rec.
It’s also possible that you accidentally added the wrong word at one point or another. I know I’ve hit ‘add’ instead of the correct spelling more than once, then it’s a whole thing to remove the incorrect word or it’ll continue to be an issue going forward.
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### Author:  [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/5 "2018-11-27T15:17:15Z")
My phone is in the habit of auto-capitalizing any word that could _possibly_ be a proper name, including common words like “hood”, “burns” and “bacon”. I’m not sure why this happens, but it’s annoying.
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### Author:  [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/6 "2018-11-27T16:18:31Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> My phone is in the habit of auto-capitalizing any word that could _possibly_ be a proper name, including common words like “hood”, “burns” and “bacon”. I’m not sure why this happens, but it’s annoying.
Maybe your capitalization settings are set to “German”? 😃
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### Author:  [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/7 "2018-11-27T16:21:15Z")
Nobody is ever trying to type “ducking” on their phone. Nobody.
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### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/8 "2018-11-27T16:27:03Z")
It’s the “auto correct” that I have to keep an eye on. A few months back, I greeted a guy, “Hi, homey!” 🙂 It came out, “Hi, honey!” 🙂 Oops! LOL
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/9 "2018-11-27T16:32:39Z")
> [@Filbert](#):
>
> Have you got the Dictionary option switched to Urban instead of US English?
Oh, stewardess! I speak jive.
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### Author:  [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/10 "2018-11-27T17:02:03Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> Oh, stewardess! I speak jive.
Ha! I had the same thought. 😃
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/11 "2018-11-27T17:23:09Z")
One of the undergrads in a course I took on US foreign policy handed in a paper about fighting “Communist gorillas.” When the professor pointed out to her that this was incorrect, she said “Well, my Spell Check said it was okay.” :smack:
I spent the rest of that session sitting next to her doodling “Communist gorillas” and occasionally slipping them over to her, much to her chagrin. :mad:
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### Author:  [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/12 "2018-11-27T17:25:50Z")
> [@terentii](#):
>
> One of the undergrads in a course I took on US foreign policy handed in a paper about fighting “Communist gorillas.” When the professor pointed out to her that this was incorrect, she said “Well, my Spell Check said it was okay.” :smack:
>
> I spent the rest of that session sitting next to her doodling “Communist gorillas” and occasionally slipping them over to her, much to her chagrin. :mad:
Communist gorillas are much more friendly than silverback guerillas.
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### Author:  [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/13 "2018-11-27T17:30:10Z")
My phone wants to turn good into “goid” all the time. I don’t even know what a goid is supposed to be.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/14 "2018-11-27T17:34:05Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#):
>
> My phone wants to turn good into “goid” all the time. I don’t even know what a goid is supposed to be.
That’s what a guy from Brooklyn does with his loins. 🆒
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### Author:  [@Clawdio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clawdio)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/15 "2018-11-27T17:36:11Z")
My phone recently tried to auto-correct a NUMBER. As in, I typed 41 (like I wanted) and it auto-corrected to 14. WTF?
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/16 "2018-11-27T18:12:23Z")
Hey, I once typed 13 and it wrote 31.
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### Author:  [@jkirkman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jkirkman)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/17 "2018-11-27T18:38:21Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Hey, I once typed 13 and it wrote 31.
Was it a white phone? That would be pretty fly, considering.
😃
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/18 "2018-11-27T18:46:35Z")
Autocorrect makes me unsane.
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### Author:  [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/19 "2018-11-27T19:25:03Z")
This is how the Skynet conquest happens, you know. A strange looking “autocorrect” here, switch a couple of numbers there, just little things that people bitch about but don’t pay much attention to. It gets worse and worse, and next thing you know, there will be a disastrous “autocorrect” in a critical communication, and the missiles will be launched.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epic-spellcheck-fails/825152/20 "2018-11-27T19:29:59Z")
> [@markn\_1](#):
>
> This is how the Skynet conquest happens, you know. A strange looking “autocorrect” here, switch a couple of numbers there, just little things that people bitch about but don’t pay much attention to. It gets worse and worse, and next thing you know, there will be a disastrous “autocorrect” in a critical communication, and the missiles will be launched.
Hey, something to look forward to! 🆒
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