[ELI5] Why does autocorrect insist that the first letter of a misspelled word is more important than the rest of it?

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For example, if I spell “umportant”, it’s easy for us to recognise that it’s supposed to be “important”, but autocorrect insists that it’s something like “umbrella”, or I guess more logically “unimportant”, even though “important” is only 1 correction away.

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These are real examples from my phone (Samsung Galaxy):

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Wuick gets the suggestions Wicked, Which, Wucky, Whickham, Whicker, Wick, Wickets, Wicket, and Wickham. None of which are “Quick”, what I intended to write.

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Nrown gets the suggestions Now, Nr own, Noon, Nowhere, Nr owner, Nr owns, and Nr owners. None of which are “Brown”.

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Dence gets the suggestions Dance, December, Denied, Dancers, Decent, Dense, Dench, and Deuce. None of which are “Fence”.

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It’s bothered me for years that it never ever picks up on a misspelt first letter.

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Edit: I tried “umportant”, and it actually comes with 0 suggestions. Not umbrella, not unimportant, not even “important”. But “inportant” and “ikportant” and even “iqportant” are all recognised as “important”.

In: Technology

14 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I think it’s intended.

If you have the first and second letter the possible words it could be brings down the search time dramatically.

Finding words with a specific 2 letter start is significantly faster than find all words with the begin with a specific letter and all words who have a specific 2nd letter. There’s no point in even having auto correct if you could type out a chapter of a book before it displays the possible word.

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