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. 

More info: Facebook

#1 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

Image credits: Anonymous participant

#2 Craigslist For Everything

Image credits: Tim Scott

#3 Me Trying To Date….yeah This Is Going Well

Image credits: Lyn Rumbaugh

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. 

#4 #streak2

Image credits: Miguel Andrei Lofstrand

#5 My Brother Was Trying To Text Me That He Would “Be By In A Minute” But His Phone Had Other Plans

Image credits: Crystal Hennessey

#6 Omg

Image credits: Patty Hanson

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”.

#7 This Was Rather Embarrassing

Image credits: Danielle Nicole

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

Image credits: Savannah Elizabeth

#9 Sorry

Image credits: Patty Hanson

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.” 

#10 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

Image credits: Heather Feather

#11 Watch Out For Those Lizards

Image credits: Brian Rowe

#12 Sorry

Image credits: Nicole Freeman

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. 

#13 Lol

Image credits: Blair Lynn

#14 The Most Awkward Meeting After This

Image credits: Chelsea Himes

#15 Haha

Image credits: Colleen Szeifried

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. 

#16 Asking My Daughter To Bring Me Red Licorice To The Hospital

Image credits: Susan Nelson Trudell

#17 Say What?

Image credits: Douglas Miller

#18 “Probably”

Image credits: Meg Stewart-Snoad

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. 

#19 Lmao

Image credits: Mandy Murphy

#20 I Think That’s A Common Mistake

Image credits: Anthony Garcia

#21 When You’re Having A Conversation With A Base Supervisor From Another Company About Fitted Sheets And There’s The Most Epic Fail Ever

Image credits: Courtney Noel

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. 

#22 Angel

Image credits: The Language Nerds

#23 Nauseous Morning T*ts…i Guess It’s A Thing

Image credits: Lynne Mason

#24 My Mate Sent Me This Gem

Image credits: Jayne Tetchner

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. 

#25 This Definitely Belongs Here

Image credits: Vanessa Addington Brandt

#26 Well Done

Image credits: Miguel Andrei Lofstrand

#27 Lol

Image credits: Annie Mckenzie

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. 

#28 I Had To Join To Share This Classic Conversation Between My 20 Year Old And Myself This Morning. Apparently The Nightclub Offers Krispy Koreans

Image credits: Gina Ramsay

#29 Cool

Image credits: Mandy Murphy

#30 My Auto Correct Cracks Me Up

Image credits: KelLy Sct

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. 

#31 This Is A Text I Sent To My Daughter Last Year…fail

Image credits: Colleen Eckman

#32 Here Is Classic One From The Internet

Image credits: Shane Clarke

#33 Omg

Image credits: Jamie Meyers Bredstrand

#34 So This Happened To Me While Texting My Wife!

Image credits: Jason Thone

#35 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

Image credits: Hunter Phoenix McKinney

#36 Not Exactly Autocorrect Fail, But A Google Assistant Fail

Image credits: Hazel Foster-Skinner

#37 I Would Die If I Got This Text

Image credits: Cassie Mattern

#38 Haha

Image credits: Mandy Murphy

#39 This Was So Good I Had To Join An Autocorrect Group Just To Share It

Image credits: Kevin Callahan

#40 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

Image credits: Courtney Noel

#41 Hmmm

Image credits: Brian Rowe

#42 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

Image credits: Rusty Baldridge

#43 Gonna Go And Do Some Thugs Now

Image credits: Cassie Mattern

#44 New Member, First Post. This Happened A Few Weeks Ago

Image credits: Chris Dykes

#45 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

Image credits: Rusty Baldridge

#46 This Is Actually A Real One That Happened Between My Mom And Myself Just The Other Day

Image credits: Angie Winchell

#47 Yup A Tinder Conversation…. So Embarrassing Ha

Image credits: Cherie Stephen

#48 Text From My 10 Yr Old!!! I Laughed Way Too Hard At This!

Image credits: Jennifer Phillips

#49 Thankfully I Caught This One Before Hitting Send

Image credits: Loki Rulz

#50 An Actual Conversation With My Ex. I’m The Blue

Image credits: Nimbus Cloud

#51 My Tenderloin Had An Unwanted Pregnancy

Image credits: Mandy Murphy

#52 Diaries

Image credits: Nikki Mittenss

#53 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

Image credits: Lisa Thompson

#54 It Happened Again!!!!

Image credits: Rusty Baldridge

#55 My Husband And I Talking About Dinner Tonight

Image credits: Melissa Nielsen Merrill

#56 Just Accidentally Sent This To My Wife. She’s Now Questioning The Company I Keep While She’s At Work

Image credits: Drew Morris

#57 Well Duck My Life. Hate New Phones

Image credits: Brenton Lee

#58 Lol

Image credits: Brian Rowe

#59 When You Talking To Your Client And Auto Correct Gets In The Way!!

Image credits: Colleen Stafford

#60 When You Don’t Proofread

Image credits: Douglas Miller

#61 Punctuation Is Important

Image credits: Brian Rowe

#62 That Awkward Moment When You Catch Up With An Old Friend

Image credits: Alekss Apanasjonoks

#63 Husband Is Buying Me New Wellington Boots So I Checked Size And Used Voice Texting

Image credits: Chris Miller

#64 An Old Screenshot Of Mine

Image credits: Cat Sparkle Mercer

#65 Definitely A Hard Pass On The Palm Sauce Thx!

Image credits: Brittany Ashley

#66 Come

Image credits: Nikki Mittenss

#67 Lol

Image credits: Amanda Mattern

#68 Sent This To My Son Today. Haha!

Image credits: Kate Evans

#69 Omg

Image credits: Bonnie Goodall

#70 Yeah, My Phone Still Wants To Correct Budism To Nudism

Image credits: Katerine Arseneault

#71 Texting With A Coworker

Image credits: Hannah Amos-Bowyer

#72 Whoops

Image credits: Rachel Elizabeth

#73 Lol

Image credits: Jamie Meyers Bredstrand

#74 Literally Just Now Fml

Image credits: Rob Ashley Betteridge

#75 Texts Between My Brother And My Mom

Image credits: Shannon Regan

#76 Guy In Local Group Posted About Some Chickens And Ducks For Free. Safe To Say I Won’t Be Getting Them

Image credits: Pamela Stanley

#77 My Sister Had A Great Fail Today!!!

Image credits: Jennifer Klein

#78 Conversation Tonight With My 70 Yr Old Neighbour On Her Birthday. Awkward!

Image credits: Colette Perkins

#79 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

Image credits: Mandy Murphy

#80 Conversation With The Police Chief’s Wife

Image credits: Michelle Matt Reid

#81 I Still Have No Idea Who Jeff Is

Image credits: Morgan Bonczek

#82 I Was Trying To Talk Text In Spanish. It Was Supposed To Say Sorry No Hablo Espanol

Image credits: Kimberly Raymond MacQuesten

#83 Concept For A New Show?

Image credits: Erica Rowe

#84 Conversation With My Husband While I Was At Kohl’s. It Was Supposed To Say, “I’m Getting A New Bra.”

Image credits: Mandy Murphy

#85 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

Image credits: Raina Earls

#86 So My GF And I Work Night Shift Together But It’s Her Night Off

Image credits: De Curry

#87 Lol

Image credits: Shawn McLaughlin

#88 Okay

Image credits: Nikki Mittenss

#89 Autocorrect

Image credits: Libby Booth

#90 I Think Skittles The Candy Was On Their Mind! Lol

Image credits: Doc Nsidious

#91 Lol

Image credits: Nikki Mittenss

#92 Oops Not What I Meant Lol. I Meant Getting Sick As My Parents Have Covid!

Image credits: Cassie Mattern

#93 Haha

Image credits: Piper Matthews

#94 This Happened Tonight. My Wife Wasn’t Feeling Well

Image credits: Sean Guy

#95 Sometimes You Just Get Sick Of Waiting

Image credits: Mandy Murphy

#96 Haha

Image credits: Erik Myers

#97 Not Something You Wanna Hear From Your Brother

Image credits: Olivia Pike

#98 I Don’t Recall Taking This Medication. My Mom Meant Escitalopram (Lexapro)

Image credits: Cassie Mattern

Source: boredpanda.com