Barking dad and accidental executions: our readers' worst autocorrect fails ever
Those pesky typos can be pretty embarrassing. Thanks for the help, phone
Woofs! – Uh, I mean, whoops!
In my family group chat, all of my aunties and uncles were complaining that their dogs bark so loud that they can’t sleep. I replied: “My dad barks, too. We have to comfort him.” It was only when everyone started telling me: “Hey, I didn’t know that your dad sounded like a dog” that I realised that it had autocorrected “dog” to “dad”. I’m feeling so sorry and embarrassing!
Crystal Fong, 15, HKBUAS
Not YP material
Eh ... it’s something I can’t type here, sorry!
Arzoo, 15, Tak Nga Secondary School
Cooking up confusion
One night, I texted my friend to ask if I could borrow a pen. I didn’t notice that my phone had autocorrected it until I got to school the next day and my friend showed up with a huge frying pan!
Miko Chui,13, SKH Tsang Shiu Tim Secondary School
What did you call me?
What about my name? “Ady” nearly always gets changed to “Day”. This is incredibly annoying, because I constantly get messages saying : “Hey Day!”
Ady Lam, 11, Island School
Well, it’s still a compliment, right?
I was trying to compliment my friend on her big beautiful dimples. Unfortunately, my phone autocorrected it to “big beautiful nipples”. Things got pretty awkward after that!
Candice Lai, 15, HKBUAS
Dinner and a movie?
I sent a message to my friend, telling him that I was watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, but that’s not what my phone wrote! I didn’t know it got autocorrected until he replied: “Harry potato and the sorcerer’s stove sound like the lamest movie.”
Wong Chi-man, 16, Fung Kai Liu Man Shek Tong Secondary School
A deadly day
In our group chat I typed: “Are you expecting Alexandra for lunch?” But it turned into: “Are you executing Alexandra for lunch?” Alexandra was not happy. It gets worse. When we went to Alexandra’s house later, my friend texted to ask where Alexandra’s grandma was. I wrote: “In the garden” ... but it autocorrected to: “In the grave”. Oops.
Hillary Lo, 11, Sha Tin College
At least it’s healthy
My biggest autocorrect fail was when I was typing my own name for an email to my teacher, and it corrected itself to “Lima beans”. Luckily that was in primary school, so at least it wasn’t a big deal or anything.
Liam Fung, 14, Chinese International School
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Ummm... they left to Madagascar
Last summer, I texted my cousin to tell her about the places we were going to visit when she came to Hong Kong. Autocorrect turned “Ngong Peng” to “Ngong Penguin”, and my cousin got super excited about seeing penguins in Hong Kong for the first time.
Let’s just say she was a little confused when we didn’t spot any penguins on the cable car.
Joy Pamnani, 18, The University of Hong Kong
Puppies! ... preferably live
One day, a friend sent a picture of a puppy in a group chat. Being an animal lover, I just HAD to comment on the pic. But instead of typing: “I want a cutie puppy just like this!”, my rebellious butterfingers typed: “I wanted a culled puppy just like this!” I mean, I’m not into corpses…
Jessica Leung, 14, St Paul’s Convent School
And the ones we couldn’t print...
When I was messaging my friends I accidentally typed an extra O when I was typing the word Coke, so it autocorrected to a man’s private parts. Embarrassing, really.
Eunice Yip, 15, Pooi To Middle School
The autocorrect function on iPhone can be a blessing, but also a curse. Once when I was messaging my friend, I tried to type “I am very hungry”, but autocorrect changed “hungry” to “horny”… safe to say I was very embarassed after that.
Eugene Lam, 17, Fung Kai Liu Man Shek Tong Secondary School
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