# Kindle SWYPE text correction weirdness **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 2, 2021, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391 "2021-12-02T21:42:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2021, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/1 "2021-12-02T21:42:19Z")
I use my kindle to post here and do other text/composition tasks like email. The onscreen keyboard supports swype, which permits you to drag your finger or stylus across the keyboard instead of typing or poking each key individually. [![](https://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/News/_nc3/Swype_path.png) ](https://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/News/_nc3/Swype_path.png) This is my 6th kindle, purchased July 2021, and it’s the biggest, latest, top of the line, “All-new Fire HD 10 tablet, 10.1”, 1080p Full HD, 64 GB, latest model (2021 release)," blahblahblah. All our devices do an auto-correct thing, i.e., they post the word it thought we meant. It can be annoying or funny. No biggie. We correct the word or not, and move on. But my latest kindle has a mind of its own-- a dirty mind. When I swype “was,” most of the time it posts “ass.” When I swype just about any word that starts with “p” (like “pretty”), it posts “pussy.” When I swype “clock,” and it posts “dick.” “Crisp” also produces “dick.” “Ball,” produces “Hell” with a capital “H.” This doesn’t happen every time. Often the right word shows up. But when the wrong word posts, it’s often a borderline dirty word. Like I said, this is my SIXTH kindle, and I’ve always posted here on the SDMB and sent emails. None of my past five kindles has taken the initiative to correct with slightly off-color words. Hypothesis: somewhere behind the keyboard/swype suggested text corrections, there’s an algorithm. And behind that, a person. And possibly a sly scamp of a person who decided to have some fun on a slow day. What do y’all think? ---
**Author:** ![TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thegunismightierthanthepen/32/2981_2.png) [@TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheGunIsMightierThanThePen)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2021, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/2 "2021-12-02T22:05:05Z")
Lucky you. I try to swype R-rated words and it keeps auto-correcting them to G-rated words that have no connection whatsoever to my intended meaning. If my phone (Google Pixel 4a) wasn’t an almost-flagship model, I’d ask you to swap devices with me. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2021, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/3 "2021-12-02T22:11:16Z")
When I had an Android I remember Swype worked great at first, then performance slowly started deteriorating the more I used it. Eventually it seemed like it was always choosing the most obscure possible word that my swipe could have been, rather than whatever simple, common word I was trying to type. Got to a point where I had to go back and retype words so often it was faster to just turn off Swype. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2021, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/4 "2021-12-02T22:16:47Z")
I believe something I saw on Facebook: auto-correct is a little elf living in your device, who’s honestly trying with all his tiny heart to help you, but he’s very very drunk. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/5 "2021-12-03T00:34:44Z")
During the beginning of the trumpy administration, when posting on my former kindle, I had to add curse words to my dictionary so I could express myself properly. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/6 "2021-12-03T00:59:27Z")
Just an FYI, but those Amazon-made tablets haven’t been called Kindles since 2014. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/7 "2021-12-03T00:59:44Z")
I don’t know about Kindle, but I know Google has options for its keyboard where you can turn off explicit words entirely. I use it, even though it stupidly will autocorrect words to duck and sit. It doesn’t seem to get that I just don’t want it to ever _auto_correct to fuck or shit. But Google is lousy about autocorrecting actual common words to other words, anyways. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/8 "2021-12-03T03:50:51Z")
You don’t say. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/9 "2021-12-03T04:28:51Z")
Good grief. I was just posting the word “non-judgmental” in another thread and the “non” came out as “boob”! WTF? Earlier I pissed… THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN “POSTED” – I’M LEAVING IT UNCORRECTED. 🤨 I started to say, earlier I posted a comment on the New York Times on my **KINDLE** , and “as” became “ass.” This is getting funny. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/10 "2021-12-03T13:54:04Z")
Has somebody else been using it behind your back and teaching it dirty words? Is there a “curse like a sailor” setting you somehow inadvertantly turned on? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/11 "2021-12-03T15:25:16Z")
Obviously, I need to give my cats a stern talking-to! ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/12 "2021-12-04T16:21:25Z")
Are these ~~Hanukkah~~ Easter eggs? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2021, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/13 "2021-12-06T23:48:25Z")
It’s still doing it. Yesterday it actually posted “shit” when I input “shot.” 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2021, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindle-swype-text-correction-weirdness/955391/14 "2021-12-07T03:10:36Z")
In another thread just now, I swyped “whole” and got “asshole.” I swyped “thread” and got “shit”!