10 Autocorrect Text Fails You Need to See Right Now

Does your phone’s autocorrect drive you crazy?

Maybe it’s never caught on that you’re “doing well”. . . not “doing we’ll.” No matter how many times you type “gave” it still insists you meant to say “have.” Or it may even think that swapping words like “baked” and “naked,” or “stapler” and “stalker,” is a good idea. (It’s not.)

That feeling when autocorrect does the wrong ‘its’ in a reply to someone with a huge following… pic.twitter.com/gWy8m1zbGl

— Young Moooooan �� (@ThrupennyBit) October 7, 2017

Not cool, autocorrect. Not cool.

Confusing, error-filled messages should not be the de facto norm of smartphone communication (or any type of communication). That’s why we’ve created a mobile keyboard that finally brings the magic of Grammarly to your iPhone—embarrassing texts, tweets, and posts can become a thing of the past.

But first, let’s take a trip down memory lane with these ten hilarious and cringeworthy autocorrect fails.

1“Luke, I am your badger.”

Hey autocorrect, I’m dressing up as “Yoda” for Halloween . . . not “Yoga.”

2Emily? Hello?

Tired of autocorrect sabotaging your romance? Typing on a tiny touch screen is tough, and it’s inevitable you’ll hit some wrong letters along the way. When autocorrect jumps to conclusions about your word choice, the meaning of your message can get even more garbled (and potentially embarrassing).

3Give ’Em the Ginger!

Autocorrect wants me to say I gave someone the ginger so here you go. pic.twitter.com/dAWEE9PVKl

— JoyceEerie������⚰️�� (@quirkisms) October 11, 2017

You deserve accuracy when describing your latest adventures. Which is why we’ve been working hard to develop an improved autocorrect feature for our new mobile app.

4Any Barking Dads on the Loose?

Things can get pretty confusing (and silly) when autocorrect chooses the wrong word.

So if it’s truly not clear which word you meant to type, the Grammarly keyboard will suggest a correction (which you can accept or reject), instead of automatically changing your misspelled word to something totally different. (So long, barking “dads”!)

5It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses a Kidney

Wouldn’t it be great if your message was understood the first time around?

6Sir-Auto-Correct-A-Lot

My banana Fonda don’t want Nuns unleashed you got bunnies hung.

– Sir Auto-Correct-A-Lot

— ..And Justin For All (@Staggfilms) October 20, 2017

Sometimes autocorrect has a life of its own. Fortunately, you don’t have to let Sir-Auto-Correct-A-Lot commandeer your writing. You can take back control.

7“We Hates It, Forever!”

Put an end to the confusion and feel free to express your inner nerd. Our new mobile app recognizes the names of your favorite fictional characters.

8Something’s Gotta Give

i spell something wrong so much that autocorrect doesn’t even suggest the right spelling anymore pic.twitter.com/lh2juQNaNe

— loo (@laoorentubbe) October 10, 2017

The struggle is real. But don’t worry, with hundreds of types of grammar and spelling checks, the Grammarly Keyboard provides accurate corrections and feedback for your common mistakes.

9So Much For Good Parenting…

Okay, it’s time to get a better keyboard! Avoid misunderstandings and show up as your best self at home, at work, and in romance.

10What’s My Name Again?

Stop trying to anticipate what I’m going to say, autocorrect. You are always wrong.

Sincerely, Annex ….I mean ANNETTE

— Annette Christie (@MsAnnetteMC) October 3, 2017

Flawless writing is a beautiful thing. Ready to experience the Grammarly Mobile Keyboard firsthand? Click here to download the keyboard for iOS.

Monday Motivation Hack: Get Your Mind Right

When you picture someone meditating, what do you see? A yoga class? A person of South Asian descent in a religious context? A random businessperson in a stock photo?

Messages about mindfulness have been muddled, messy, and largely unhelpful since its rise to popularity. In the last few years, mindfulness has moved from hippie-and-yogi buzzword to bonified productivity skill lauded by the likes of The Harvard Business Review and Tim Ferriss. Since its appropriation by leadership seminars and tech giant conferences, mindfulness seems to have lost some of its meaning. So what does it mean, anyway? Here’s a simple definition:

Now, if that makes sense, let’s talk about how mindfulness can help you hack Monday mornings. We mentioned mindfulness as a practice when we talked about morning routines, but this productivity-producing mental habit deserves more attention.

Why practice mindfulness in the morning? As Dr. Laura Maciuika puts it in Psychology Today, “Your routine first thing in the morning sets the tone for the entire day. Before breakfast is generally a good time to meditate.” Even if you’re hungry and little groggy, taking a moment for yourself before tackling the day can help you to remember to remain calm and grounded, no matter what happens later.

The Twenty-Minute Version: Full Meditation

If you want the deep dive version, consider taking up a full meditation practice in the morning. If you have the time, this practice can help your days, weeks, and months run smoother than they have before.

To start, you should probably work with one of the guided meditation options below, starting with a ten-minute-long session. After a week (or whenever you feel comfortable), you can try focusing on your breath and your thoughts for ten minutes independently.

When you branch out on your own, choose a comfortable seat on the floor—or in a chair! There’s a misconception that you have to sit in a bendy yoga-esque position to meditate, and this is simply not true. Also, make sure you’re alone in a quiet space, where distractions are minimal. On the emotional side, be sure to enter a fully judgment-free zone when you attempt your first meditation. There’s no “right” way to meditate (no matter what the Internet says), and this is your first time flying solo, so be gentle with yourself. Also, a practical note: to keep your session on track without staring at a clock, be sure to set a timer with a gentle, non-intrusive beep. Close your eyes, start to notice your breath, and follow the instructions you’ve learned through guided meditation. Next thing you know, you’ll hear the beep and find yourself starting the day as a calmer, more centered human.

As you become more acclimated to this type of grounding in this space, you’ll be able to increase your meditation sessions from ten to fifteen to twenty minutes. If you have a full half hour, go for it! If possible, try to keep your meditation in the same physical space, so your mind associates that chair, room, or pillow in the closet with centering and focus. And have fun with it!

The Ten-Minute Variation: Guided Visualization

When we talk about mindfulness, we often equate it with quiet, sit-on-the-floor-by-yourself meditation. But that doesn’t have to be the case! You can just as easily sit in a chair, throw on your headphones, and have someone else guide you to a state of mindfulness.

There are few options to make this happen, from paid services to apps to podcasts to the old, reliable YouTube video. Try these three, and see which one suits you. Then you can check out this larger list of options. And remember, this is about your feels, so there is no “right” way to move through guided meditation!

1 The Classic YouTube Video

Male Voice, With Nature Imagery and Music

Female Voice, With Cats (and Cat Sounds)

2 The Podcast

3 The App

The Two-Minute Option: Mindfulness on the Move

You know what the great thing about mindfulness is? You don’t have to be meditating to practice it! You can apply the principles of mindfulness to anything you do.

Let that sink in. Anything.

So, if your morning routine is already hectic because of limited time or extra people to get ready for the day, you don’t have to carve out dedicated time to meditate. Instead, you can choose a mundane, repetitive activity you do every morning, and apply meditation principles to it. Some great candidates include:

• Walking to work (if you’re one of the lucky ones who can)
• Eating breakfast (if you won’t be interrupted)
• Showering (if you won’t be interrupted)
• Commuting (if you’re not driving)

If you choose one of these activities to do mindfully, you will need to ensure you can do it for five to ten minutes without interruption. It doesn’t necessarily need to be quiet where you are, but you’ll need headphones and a dedicated app if it’s loud. Just use the same principles as above, and do the activity as you normally would. But remember, pay attention to yourself without getting caught in your own feelings web.

Learned or Learnt?

There are many perks to speaking the lingua franca of your time, but one of the downsides is that you’ll always doubt whether you’re using it right. English has almost as many variants as there are countries that use it as their official language. A great example of that is the past tense of the verb learn—is it learnt? Or is it learned?

Learnt and learned are both used as the past participle and past tense of the verb to learn. Learned is the generally accepted spelling in the United States and Canada, while the rest of the English-speaking world seems to prefer learnt.

Learn more about the details of this difference below.

The Difference between Learned and Learnt

Whether you’re saying you learned something or learnt something, you’re talking about the same thing—the process of finding out, acquiring, or retaining knowledge or information. The only difference is that the way you spell it says something about where you’re from. Learnt and learned are both used as the past participle and past tense of the verb to learn. Learned is the generally accepted way of spelling it in the United States and Canada, while the rest of the English-speaking world seems to prefer learnt for now.

Why for now? The American English tendency toward making irregular verbs into regular ones has started influencing British English, which is why the -ed variant is becoming increasingly used around the world. Soon learned might be the most common form everywhere.

Examples

Here are some examples of learned and learnt from around the world:

“Ackerman has learned from user feedback that many of his listeners fall asleep during the twenty-minute introduction, and I’m usually one of them.” —The New Yorker

“CBC News has also learned a number of Conservative MPs will be called to testify by the Crown.” —CBC

“But, sometimes, these ‘agents’ learn to override this, they say, giving an example of a 2013 AI taught to play Tetris that learnt to pause a game forever to avoid losing.” —BBC

The Exception: When Learned Is the Only Option

No matter where you live, sometimes learned is the only correct form to use—it’s when you’re writing the adjective learned. In that case, you can’t use learnt and you have to pronounce the word as two syllables: LER-ned. Use this adjective when you want to say that someone has a lot of knowledge or education: “The girl with the very ordinary education became, in the words of her daughter, Sue, a ‘very learned’ woman.” —The Sydney Morning Herald “You’re welcome, Most learned reverend sir, into our kingdom: Use us and it.” —William Shakespeare, Henry VIII In American English, learned is the prevalent past tense form of learn. In other varieties of English, learnt is dominant. Because of the strong influence of American English, learned is increasing in popularity. Do you think that learnt will disappear completely one day?

Linking Verbs

Linking verbs are verbs that serve as a connection between a subject and further information about that subject. They do not show any action; rather, they “link” the subject with the rest of the sentence. The verb to be is the most common linking verb, but there are many others, including all the sense verbs.

A handful—a very frequently used handful—of verbs are always linking verbs:

• all forms of to be (am, is, are, was, were, has been, are being, might be, etc.)
• to become
• to seem

These verbs always link subjects to something that further describes the subject of the sentence.

She is a nurse.

The moon is in outer space.

I have become weary of your methodical approach to waltzing.

The Dalai Lama seems like a nice guy.

These sentences show that a linking verb can connect the subject with a number of sentence elements. Nurse is a noun; in outer space is a prepositional phrase; weary is an adjective; and a nice guy is a phrase that contains both an adjective and a noun. All of them give us more information about what these subjects are, have become, or seem to be.

Some Verbs Can Be Both Action and Linking Verbs

Alas, English has many ambiguities, and some linking verbs can also function as action verbs. These include all the sense verbs, such as look, touch, smell, appear, feel, sound, and taste. There are also some outliers, such as turn, grow, remain, and prove. Used as linking verbs, these verbs can give added information about the sentence’s subject.

The ocean looked peaceful that fine Tuesday.

I felt so excited that day.

That man appears somewhat melancholy.

The soup tastes spicier than usual.

Rachel’s theory about time management remains untested.

All these verbs can do double duty, however, as action verbs.

I felt on the floor for my lost keys.

The man appeared suddenly right in front of me.

Would you taste that soup for me?

Remain here while I go ask Rachel about time management.

What Is Your Email Patronus? Quiz

It’s practically magic how much work can be accomplished by email, especially for us mere muggles! If emails were sent by owl, our skies would be darkened day after day. Fortunately for our view and keeping the streets clean, you just need internet access. Everyone has a different approach to managing their email mischief. Take our fun quiz to find out what kind of email patronus you have.

Did we get it right? Tell us what kind of patronus you conjure when you’re working your email magic!