A mispronunciation is saying a word incorrectly, getting the sounds wrong in a way that makes it hard to recognize or understand. When you mispronounce something, you might stress the wrong syllable, leave out sounds, add extra sounds, or mix up the order of sounds in the word.

Common mispronunciations happen with words we've only seen written but never heard spoken aloud. You might read about an “archipelago” in a book and say “arch-uh-PEL-uh-go” when talking about it, not realizing it's actually “ar-kuh-PEL-uh-go.” Or you might say “supposably” when you mean “supposedly,” or “nu-cu-lar” instead of “nu-cle-ar.”

Mispronunciation is completely normal and happens to everyone, even adults. English is especially tricky because spelling doesn't always match sounds: words like “enough,” “through,” and “cough” all end with the same letters but sound totally different. Regional accents also mean that people pronounce words differently in different places, which isn't mispronunciation at all, just natural variation.

When someone corrects your mispronunciation, they're usually trying to help, not embarrass you. Mispronouncing a word often means you learned it from reading, which shows curiosity and a growing vocabulary.