How can I get QuickPath to give me "the" and "and" when I swipe them?

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Level 1

44 points

How can I get QuickPath to give me "the" and "and" when I swipe them?

Every time I swipe either of those words I get a number of other possibilities - such as thee, three, they, or ands, Andy, etc - but almost never the actual one I want. The two most common words in the English language and I nearly always - maybe 98% of the time - have to tap the correct word in the autocorrect bar after swiping. Is there any way to fix this? Did Apple intend for it to operate this way?

[Edited by Moderator]

iPhone 17 Pro

Posted on Jun 15, 2026 6:39 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

WheelieNick

Level 9

50,673 points

Aug 12, 2026 2:22 PM in response to jameslitvak

You can fix your swipe keyboard by resetting your iPhone keyboard dictionary in Settings under Transfer or Reset iPhone. Apple did not design this to fail; instead, the swipe algorithm struggles with short, common words because many similar letter paths overlap, causing the dictionary to misinterpret your swipe.

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Answer 2

jameslitvak Author

Level 1

44 points

Aug 12, 2026 3:23 PM in response to WheelieNick

I just reset my keyboards dictionary then immediately opened a new note and swiped from t to h to e. It entered “there.” Tried again and it gave me them. Swiped from a to n to d and it gave me Andy. So no, I can’t fix it by doing that. Similarly, when I swipe something like “the keyboard” it will give me “there” when I swipe the, then change it after the second work to give me “the keyboards” but it always defaults to plural. Why would I want plural being the default? That makes zero sense.

Also, I had to repost this reply because Apple removed my last one. Heaven forbid you say anything negative about their _perfect_ products.

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