Words that Leopard’s spellchecker chokes on
We trust spellcheckers to be right, right? We expect that the spellchecker will yield an accurate correction, or at the least, real words. Oddly enough, though, I’ve stumbled upon a few misspellings that cause Leopard’s built-in spellchecker to throw up some amusing–though incorrect–results (a friend shared one with me; I discovered two of them). Mind you, I never added any of these to my spellchecker dictionary. These are all using the default English spelling dictionary; I even checked while using a new user account. At any rate, here they are, in no particular order:
The typo: instrucitons
The intended word: instructions
The suggested spelling: isntrucitons
The notes: The spellchecker does offer the correct spelling as one of the choices; how isntrucitons ended up in there is beyond me…
The typo: applicatication
The intended word: application
The suggested spelling: applicaticataion
The notes: FAIL.
Also, Dictionary.com offers up upland cotton as a possible alternate for applicaticataion and no alternates whatsoever for applicatication. That said, it was one heck of a typo on my part in the first place, but that’s no excuse for making up words! :P
The typo: positiove
The intended word: positive
The suggested spelling: positionve
The notes: Like the first one, the correct word was among the choices, but again, Leopard decides to have a little fun with our minds.
I’m guessing these are just bugs in the spellchecker. Hey, at least this bug is mostly harmless!
Are there any words that you have noticed that spellchecker gets incorrect? Let us know in the comments.
Tweet This (1)
smooshipantz on July 10th, 2008 at 11:09 am
lol
Intended word: lol
Suggested: loll, lola
Jon on July 10th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Inc.
Intended: Inc.
Suggested: Inc.
That’s my current most annoying spellchecker issue. ;)
-jon
Didier on July 10th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
lol is not standard English right now so it will be marked as misspelled.
camron flanders on July 10th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I’m pretty sure these are words in your custom dictionary, not the stock dictionary. to check, clear your custom dictionary ( I think you can do this from the settings/general menu).
I don’t have those problems with mine, atleast. Remember, it learns words you type a lot and adds them.
Gorm on July 10th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Intended: Hell
Suggested: He’ll
Sometimes you just want to say “It was funny as hell” or something similarly quick, but it almost always comes out wrong and everyone wonder who “he” is.
John on July 10th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I heard on the radio recently that some high school put the year book through the spell checker before sending it to press. Of course, the names got horribly mangled. Dumb to do that and not check the results.
Kevin Neal on July 10th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Funny, but this simply isn’t true!
instrucitons gives me instructions
applicatication gives me no guesses
positiove gives me positive
This article = FAIL
Rich on July 10th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I get the same problems as Nick. I tested it in text edit. ‘lol’ should be marked as misspelled, but the suggestion loll makes no sense (I get that suggestion also.) Though, I do not get the same results that Jon and Gorm got. Hell and Inc. are not shown as misspelled on my computer.
Nick Mediati on July 10th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I got the so-called correction for “Inc.” but “Hell” was recognized as being correct. Bizarre.
And fwiw, I tested this using a fresh user account too. Since each user has their own custom spelling dictionary, it shouldn’t carry over even if “positionve” was in my custom dictionary (which it wasn’t).
KiL on July 10th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
I guess he must have had the spellchecker learn some of his own misspellings previously. Here “instrucitons” proposes to spell it “instructions”
“applicatication” comes up with no suggestions for correction (but it’s marked as misspelled)
“positiove” proposes to spell it “positive”
Dont on July 10th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
type “dont” and it dont suggest don’t
Ben on July 10th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
I work for a large magazine and our subs (with the help of spellcheck) changed all refernces to Malware in an article to Malaria.
Lucky we picked it up before it went to print.
Nick Mediati on July 11th, 2008 at 12:46 am
@ #10: see #9.
And why would I have the spellchecker remember misspellings?
Chris Huang on July 11th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Send this to Apple and hopefully they’ll fix it in the next Leopard update.
Partners in Grime on July 11th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Intended: Ballmer
Suggested: Baller
See? Apple’s got a great sense of humor! :)
kat on July 14th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
anyone else noticed that the 10.5 calculator is a horror show? just for example, divide 37 by 402. what is this – new math?? (but my widget calculator seems OK.)
diane frank on November 3rd, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Here’s a very QUICK way to find your word by the way it sounds. Nothing like it…ever. Just sound out your word then look it up in the book. You will find the word you really need in 20 seconds or less without having to turn on the computer or go on the internet!! I love this book.
Gabby’s Wordspeller & Phonetic Dictionary
Published 2008 for the world and International Lions Club
ISBN 978-0-9801025-0-5
Ffaelan Condragh on March 12th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Macs are racist. :)
my boss was writing an email
subject Sanford Biggers
Sanford is a well known African American artist who deals with racial topics and more.
Intended word “Biggers”
I think you can guess what his Mac suggested.
wow. why that word is even in the spell check dictionary I’ll never know.
Edward Loveall on April 11th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
The typo: nessicarilly
The intended word: necessarily
The suggested spelling: nessiwcarilly
…………what?
Greyholme on September 10th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
applicaticataion is my favorite. Even though dictionary.com isn’t certain what it is I would like to define it as a Vaction in the Appalachians
พระเครื่อง on November 16th, 2009 at 9:46 am
It’s very useful for me. Thank you.
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