The iPhone has an English dictionary built in (minus the definitions). As you
type, it compares what you’ve typed against the words in that dictionary (and
against the names in your address book). If it finds a match or a partial match,
it displays a suggestion just beneath what you’ve typed.
If you tap the Space bar to accept the suggestion, wonderful.
If you don’t—if you dismiss the suggestion and allow the “mistake” to stand—
then the iPhone adds that word to a custom, dynamic dictionary, assuming
that you’ve just typed some name, bit of slang, or terminology that wasn’t in
its dictionary originally. It dawns on the iPhone that maybe that’s a legitimate
word it doesn’t know—and adds it to the dictionary. From now on, in other words, it will accept that bizarre new word as a legitimate word—and, in fact,
will even suggest it the next time you type something like it.
Words you’ve added to the dictionary actually age. If you stop using some
custom term, the iPhone gradually learns to forget it. That’s handy behavior if
you never intended for that word to become part of the dictionary to begin
with (that is, it was a mistake).
if you feel you’ve really made a mess of your custom dictionary, and the iPhone
keeps suggesting ridiculous alternate words, you can always start fresh. Tap
HomeÆSettingsÆgeneralÆReset; then tap Reset Keyboard Dictionary. Now the
iPhone’s dictionary is the way it was when it came from the factory, without any of
the words it learned from you.
