Apple iOS 17 to tweak its autocorrect feature - ‘Ducking hell’ and other annoying errors, how to switch off

Apple’s developers have announced that it will improve its autocorrect feature that annoyingly changes one of the most common expletives to “ducking”. The new update will be released with iOS 17 - which has been reported the new feature will be powered by AI. 

The AI model will learn to predict words and phrases the iPhone user repeats, which includes swear words. Apple’s software chief, Craig Federighi, said at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino on Monday (5 June): “In those moments where you just want to type a ducking word, well, the keyboard will learn it, too”. 

It is believed the iOS will be expected to be available as public beta in July - with a general release to come out in September. So, excluding ducking, what are some of the most common autocorrected words? Here’s what you need to know. 

Common autocorrected words

There are a vast amount of words which predictive text gets wrong on Apple - and some of these can change the context of the sentence. Some of the most popular corrects are: 

• “Of” to “if” - a common but annoying change. 
• “My” to “Me” - sometimes just not grammatically correct 
• “In” to “I’m” - Apple isn’t a huge fan of contractions 
• “Were” to “We’re” - can change the whole meaning of a sentence 
• “Honey” to “Hiney” - not a nickname most people call their partner 
• “Greggs” to “Greg” - no more complications in meeting up 
• Expletives - in a similar vein to “ducking”, we have “funking”
• Niche words - when it uncommon words, at NationalWorld we saw “khorasan” flour change to “Kanye” flour
• Capitalising words - this includes “omw” to “OMW” or “brb” to “BRB”
• Contractions - “we’ll” to “well” and other types such as “I’ll to “ill”. 

Have a some experience with annoying autocorrections? Get in touch with [email protected] and follow @hiyahzaidi on Twitter to get involved.