# How does auto-correct work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 12, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310 "2014-05-12T23:08:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/1 "2014-05-12T23:08:48Z")
I’ve often noticed, and have seen may web sites devoted to showing auto-correct mistakes, that people seem to blame auto-correct for a lot of misunderstandings and plain old mistakes in text messages. I don’t use auto-correct, and my question is, does the software auto-correct spelling mistakes AFTER you hit send? Or does it correct as you type? If it corrects the mistakes as you type, don’t people look at their text messages BEFORE they hit send? I make sure everything I send is as correct as I can make it, and would do so even if I had auto-correct on. I don’t understand how someone can type out a message, have auto-correct correct it, and then not look at it before it is sent. Am I missing something about auto-correct? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/2 "2014-05-12T23:27:02Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > I’ve often noticed, and have seen may web sites devoted to showing auto-correct mistakes, that people seem to blame auto-correct for a lot of misunderstandings and plain old mistakes in text messages. > > I don’t use auto-correct, and my question is, does the software auto-correct spelling mistakes AFTER you hit send? Or does it correct as you type? > > If it corrects the mistakes as you type, don’t people look at their text messages BEFORE they hit send? I make sure everything I send is as correct as I can make it, and would do so even if I had auto-correct on. I don’t understand how someone can type out a message, have auto-correct correct it, and then not look at it before it is sent. Am I missing something about auto-correct? > > Thanks! Nope. That’s about right. I personally don’t double check my message about half the time before I hit “send”, so auto-correct mistakes are fairly common. ETA: Also, I suspect the vast majority of those “funny auto correct” images are not real auto correct mistakes. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/3 "2014-05-12T23:56:40Z")
Surely you’ve made typos without noticing them before, right? Now think of how much easier it would be to do that when you really actually did type what you meant to type. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/4 "2014-05-13T00:05:18Z")
I don’t understand what you mean. I’ve made typos as I’m typing out the text, but I’ve noticed most of them as I review the text before I hit send. Nothing I would type would remotely resemble some of the “auto-correct fails” I’ve seen in person and online. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/5 "2014-05-13T00:20:39Z")
I have autocorrect on my iPhone and it’s mostly accurate, but sometimes it will make bizarre suggestions. But it will always pop up a box with what it thinks you intended to type with an “X” next to it before you complete the word, so you have a chance to type what you actually intended instead of what the phone thinks you should type. It really does save me from going back and making corrections, though, as on a small screen it is actually quite easy to make typos. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/6 "2014-05-13T00:22:42Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > I’ve often noticed, and have seen may web sites devoted to showing auto-correct mistakes, that people seem to blame auto-correct for a lot of misunderstandings and plain old mistakes in text messages. I’m not sure many of the mistakes blamed on “Autocorrect” are much to do with it. All it will do is correct mistakes like “freind” whoever programmed it assumed the intended word is obvious. It might be that it would assume someone who correctly spelt an unusual word like “Calvary” meant “cavalry”, but if the intended word is common and correctly spelt, nothing is going to automatically correct it to another word. I suspect what people blaming “Autocorrect” mean most of the time is that some kind of prediction software such as Swype (which tries to guess which word you mean to write as you drag your finger over the on-screen keyboard to spell the word) or they simply typed the word wrong. Either way, the fault lies with the person who confirmed that the text in the box is what they wanted to say. ETA: I had a look and the first five or so “Autocorrect fails” I found seem very likely to be fake. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/7 "2014-05-13T00:27:25Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > Either way, the fault lies with the person who confirmed that the text in the box is what they wanted to say. Yeah, I figured as much. I have some family who text sometimes incomprehensible things that they subsequently blame on auto-correct and when I ask them if they look at what they are sending before they hit send, they simply say “Yeah, but auto-correct changes it!” ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/8 "2014-05-13T00:40:58Z")
You texted me Penny’s dating an astronaut. I texted “architect.” That’s amusing. Auto-correct must’ve changed it. Yeah, it’s hysterical. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/9 "2014-05-13T00:45:49Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > I’m not sure many of the mistakes blamed on “Autocorrect” are much to do with it. All it will do is correct mistakes like “freind” whoever programmed it assumed the intended word is obvious. It might be that it would assume someone who correctly spelt an unusual word like “Calvary” meant “cavalry”, but if the intended word is common and correctly spelt, nothing is going to automatically correct it to another word. It’s a bit more sophisticated than that. On my phone, it takes into account adjacent letters on the keyboard and stuff like that. And if you type a word not in the dictionary and hit space without looking, it can change to a similar but in intended word, especially if you type like me and just trust autocorrect to correct your fat fingered typing. For example, I am writing this post and about every third word I type is an error autocorrect fixes. I just type through the errors and autocorrect gets it right 95% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/10 "2014-05-13T00:47:48Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Yeah, I figured as much. I have some family who text sometimes incomprehensible things that they subsequently blame on auto-correct and when I ask them if they look at what they are sending before they hit send, they simply say “Yeah, but auto-correct changes it!” And with the PDA’s and smart phones (etc) they can type a few letters it offers a choice of words. Suppose they they may have typed “pan” to type “pants” but it offers “plants” and "panda’ Then 1. There is an effect of the brain that “You see what you EXPECT to see” (and “hear what you EXPECT to hear”, but thats a different topic.) So they may see the offer of “plants” and read it as “pants” 1. they may accidentally click on the panda, and then not notice later on… yeah didn’t read it through. Know won will reed carefully enough to find every spelling miss steak. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/11 "2014-05-13T00:53:17Z")
Plus autocorrect, at least on my phone, learns. Most swear words autocorrected when I first got this phone, but now I can type them and it recognizes them. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/12 "2014-05-13T01:00:07Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > 1. they may accidentally click on the panda, and then not notice later on… > > yeah didn’t read it through. This is what I was wondering. It just seems weird to me some of the texts I get where it is apparent that the sender didn’t review it at all, and didn’t catch so much that the text becomes meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/13 "2014-05-13T01:02:27Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > Know won will reed carefully enough to find every spelling miss steak. I can read that, but sometimes I will get “Nobody welcome will read car enormous to find everybody spell missus” ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/14 "2014-05-13T03:20:02Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Plus autocorrect, at least on my phone, learns. Most swear words autocorrected when I first got this phone, but now I can type them and it recognizes them. No matter how much I try to type the word “hell,” it always insists on making it “he’ll.” ☹ ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/15 "2014-05-13T03:35:55Z")
I don’t see what the big mystery is. Most people sending SMS texts are doing so very casually on-the-go, while multitasking, preoccupied, rushing, etc. so not many concern themselves with proofreading. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/16 "2014-05-13T07:26:02Z")
Wait until Google develops that self-driving car, then makes it “smart” so it will take you where it thinks you want to go, instead of where you actually want to go. (And relying, of course, on GPS and on-line maps, all so famous for directing drivers into wheat fields and mangrove swamps.) Then you’ll start hearing a whole new breed of auto-correct horror stories! ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/17 "2014-05-13T09:14:52Z")
My Android phone corrects in a pretty aggressive manner. The Québécois slang I usually use when texting gets transformed into “proper” French words (unrelated words that have similar spelling) when I press the spacebar. I can’t think of an example of that right now, but imagine I’m using the word “bit” in a sentence, on an English phone that doesn’t know about that word. I press B and see “b”. I press I and see “bi”. I press T and see “bit”. I press the space bar and the word gets changed to "but ". Often I’ll notice the substitution, but sometimes not. I can teach the phone new words, but occasionally the custom dictionary seems to get wiped out. I think it happens when I change the keyboard’s language (switch to English to write a work e-mail, then back to French). ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/18 "2014-05-13T09:33:42Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > I don’t see what the big mystery is. Most people sending SMS texts are doing so very casually on-the-go, while multitasking, preoccupied, rushing, etc. so not many concern themselves with proofreading. This is my failing. I type in a hurry and then just press send without really reviewing. I’ve had some spectacularly incorrect messages go out like this. I hasten to add that I review professional messages and emails much more carefully, but when it comes to contacting friends and family, anything goes. ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vegetable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Space\_Vegetable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vegetable)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/19 "2014-05-13T10:12:08Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Wait until Google develops that self-driving car, then makes it “smart” so it will take you where it thinks you want to go, instead of where you actually want to go. Auto auto-correct, correct? ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310/20 "2014-05-13T10:37:41Z")
How does auto-correct work? **Badly**. …hard to believe it took 20 posts for someone to say it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-auto-correct-work/688310.md?page=2)