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TikTok's "Illiterate Boyfriend Test" Exposes a BIG Problem

Kristina Candid

10,760 views

At some point, asking your boyfriend to read a few words out loud stopped being a cute little couples challenge… and somehow became an internet investigation into whether he can read.

What started as a seemingly harmless TikTok test turned into women filming their boyfriends struggling to pronounce words, strangers judging entire relationships, and a bigger debate about when playful teasing becomes public humiliation.

So naturally, I had questions.

What exactly is the “illiterate boyfriend test”? Does mispronouncing an unfamiliar word actually tell us anything about someone’s intelligence? Are these couples laughing together, or is one person becoming the punchline? And why does the internet suddenly get a vote on whether you should be embarrassed by your boyfriend?

In this video, we’re going all the way down the illiterate boyfriend test rabbit hole — from the challenge itself to the reactions it inspired, the difference between pronunciation and comprehension, and the bigger conversation around turning your relationship into content for strangers to judge. ENJOY :)

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
01:27 Illiterate Boyfriend Test Trend
03:01 What is the Illiterate BF Test?
04:20 Comments Section...
05:25 Getting All the Answers Correct
07:35 The First Problem with This Trend
10:39 The stats....
12:34 Testing BF Content
15:15 Comments Section Again..
19:07 Final thoughts

📧 BUSINESS INQUIRIES

kristinaunfilteredYT@gmail.com

🏷️ KEYWORDS
illiterate boyfriend test, illiterate boyfriend, illiterate boyfriend trend, illiterate boyfriend challenge, illiterate boyfriend test tiktok, boyfriend reading test, boyfriend pronunciation test, tiktok boyfriend challenge, tiktok reading challenge, couples challenges, viral tiktok trends, tiktok trends 2026, tiktok commentary, internet culture, internet culture commentary, social commentary, youtube commentary, relationship commentary, dating culture, relationship trends, tiktok relationships, couples content, relationship content, public humiliation, embarrassing your partner, pronunciation vs intelligence, social media relationships, performative relationships, viral couples videos, internet trends, Kristina Unfiltered

⚖️ COPYRIGHT / FAIR USE

This video contains commentary, criticism, discussion, and analysis of internet trends and online culture. Certain third-party clips, images, screenshots, and other media may appear throughout the video for the purpose of providing context to the topics being discussed.

All third-party materials remain the property of their respective copyright holders.

Their inclusion is intended to fall under the principles of Fair Use outlined in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act, including use for criticism, commentary, education, research, and reporting.

The third-party material shown has been selected and edited specifically to support the original commentary and analysis presented in this video. No copyright infringement is intended.

Nothing in this video is intended to encourage harassment or harm toward any creator, company, individual, or group discussed.

#IlliterateBoyfriendTest #IlliterateBoyfriend #TikTokTrends #TikTokCommentary #InternetCulture #SocialCommentary #DatingCulture #RelationshipTrends #CouplesContent #YouTubeCommentary

20 Comments

@User_0202-yt 3 weeks ago (edited) Pinned

You’re so underrated
You dropped this btw 📌

@krmfoxes1198 3 weeks ago

What people forget is sometimes it might be due to 1. a language barrier 2. they might dyslexic or have something similar or 3. like you said, they know the word; they've just never heard it aloud. Or vice versa: they've heard the word and know what it means, but never actually seen it. I don't know, I just think unless they're messing up on super simple words (and even then just kind of a yellow flag) and no one's taking the results seriously, it's just kind of a silly challenge.

@Isabellakamu 3 weeks ago

As a Brazilian who lives — temporarily — in an English-speaking country, I was so offended when someone used this to make fun of my pronunciation. As if I can’t pronounce these words in my own language.
I’ve always read plenty of classic books in my own language with words far more complicated than these, and I promise I could pronounce them beautifully.

@lindenm.9149 3 weeks ago

I’m just concerned it’s cool to brag about having a bad bf online as well as trying to embarrass your partners online. More concerning than the actual concerning literacy crisis.

@angelscrownttv 3 weeks ago (edited)

I think there is a huge difference between someone being a red flag and someone being illiterate or bad at reading. Someone can still be a good person and hardworking while being unfortunately on the lower end of the USA's messed up educational system. There's also the added layer that maybe not all of them speak English as native language or had parents that read to them or even cared about their education. As someone whose native language is not English I struggle with some of those words too.

@the_wind_that_blows_you 3 weeks ago

I’m scared of the future for this world.

@Kristinacandid Creator 3 weeks ago

I'm not gonna lie, some of the test videos make me LOL 😂

@the_markoman 3 weeks ago

I've always pronounced it epi-tome in my head when reading. I'd like to motion for us to change the spelling to either epitomee or epitomé to make it make sense.

@Dammus61 4 days ago

i was watching this video, thinking you prolly have 100s of thousands of subscribers and i was genuinely surprised because the quality to subscriber ratio DOES NOT match! dropped a sub!

@maratheune4516 2 weeks ago

omd finally found an underrated creator?!

@ObeyCamp 3 weeks ago

This content says more to me about the viewer than the subject, honestly. Particularly repeat viewers. Recreationally judging other people, especially their looks or their intelligence (e.g. habitually correcting people's usually minor spelling and other grammar mistakes,) is a habit almost always stemming from personal insecurity. We all judge other people sometimes, it's something that our brains do automatically, but doing it recreationally is acharismatic as hell. If you wanna be hot asf, then just be cool to everyone no matter what. That's a strong social habit.

Rudeness is the weak person's imitation of strength.

@thirstyforlaundrydetergent9664 3 weeks ago

I'm German. A lot of these words, that were borrowed from European languages are also pronounced differently in the languages they originated from. For example I have never heard someone say "Hors-d'œuvre" the way you did this entire video. I'm aware that those words have become a part of standard English, but hearing a native English speaker say "Renaissance" will always sound strange, because it's so far from the french pronunciation.
I'm basically just trying to give a perspective on how "correct speaking" will change and evolve within languages.

@skisicsmalone 3 weeks ago

yeah english pronunciation is the worst so I have zero judgement for people who pronounce things wrong (I'm a native english speaker). I definitely pronounced words wrong when I was a kid since I was a huge reader and read weird books, picking up more "adult level" words I knew from a book but never heard aloud until I was older. I also know spanish (not natively) and its pronunciation is so much more straightforward 😭 I have sooooo much respect for people who learn english as a second language, no matter how "bad" they think they are at it so if someone who is learning english reads this -- you're doing a great job and thank you for learning my language <3

@cherierie-esh 2 weeks ago

i literally grew up with british english, which means my english inherently isn't wrong most of the time, and so many americans still fully think i'm pronouncing words wrong

@AmberReidacted 2 days ago

I’d be extremely turned off if my partner pronounced all those words incorrectly.

@Kristinacandid Creator 3 weeks ago

I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this one!!!

1. Is it a red flag if your partner can’t pronounce these words?
2. Are people being too harsh on these BFs, or just being honest?
3. Would you post your partner doing this test… and would you be okay with them posting YOU? 😂

Let’s discuss ⬇️

@redeyedfrenzy 3 weeks ago

Hey, so the british "couple" are both comedians and that particular video is satire.

@thatonepossum5766 2 weeks ago

I can make gnocchi from scratch, but I can’t pronounce it correctly to save my life. My accent doesn’t like those sounds all back to back, I have to really focus to get it to come out right. I can read it, I know what it means, I know it’s absolutely delicious. Everyone in my family simplifies it to know-key, because it’s easier for us to say. 🤷‍♀️

@ybrix101 3 weeks ago

Great. Now let's do a video where the girlfriend has to read a map.

@mingiinimene3335 3 weeks ago

Not sure but the dude at 7:05 might be dyslexic. He rather tries to guess the word than to read it. Anyway don't do this to the people you love, at least not the posting part.