Pronunciation · Famously mispronounced words

How to pronounce “mischievous”

MIS-chiv-us

3 syllables · stress on “MIS”

MISchivus

Britishˈmɪstʃɪvəs

Americanˈmɪstʃɪvəs

In short

“mischievous” is pronounced MIS-chiv-us: 3 syllables, with the stress on “MIS”. People model it on “devious” and “previous”, which really do have that -ee-us ending. Mischievous does not: there is no i after the v in the spelling, and no extra syllable in the sound. The version to avoid is mis-CHEE-vee-us — four syllables, with an invented i before the ending.

Say “mischievous” in 3 steps

1Three syllables only: MIS-chiv-us.
2Stress the first syllable and let the other two stay short.
3Check the spelling: there is no i between v and o. If you are saying four syllables, you have added one.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: mis-CHEE-vee-us — four syllables, with an invented i before the ending

People model it on “devious” and “previous”, which really do have that -ee-us ending. Mischievous does not: there is no i after the v in the spelling, and no extra syllable in the sound.

Hear real people say it

Model audio is consistent; real speech is not. Hearing several actual speakers is what makes a word recognisable when someone says it at full speed.

Real speakers

1 human recording

Actual people saying “mischievous”, not a synthetic voice. Real speech varies — that variation is what you need to recognise, and what a single model voice cannot show you.

Recordings from Wikimedia Commons by Dvortygirl, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Full credits.

Practise it out loud

Reading about a sound does not change your mouth. Say it, hear it back, and fix one thing at a time.

Say it yourself

0/6 practised

Listen first, then record. You get feedback on the individual sounds, the stress and the rhythm — no account needed, and nothing is stored.

Three speakers per accent

Recordings are used only to generate this feedback and are not stored. Your accent is never penalised: IELTS scores intelligibility, and so do we.

The sounds inside this word

Each links to a full guide with mouth position, audio and drills. If a word keeps failing, the problem is usually one of these.

mm as in man ɪi as in sit ss as in see tʃch as in chair vv as in very əa as in about (schwa)

More famously mispronounced words

Same pattern, same fix. Learning them as a group is far faster than one at a time.

epitomeih-PIT-uh-mee hyperbolehy-PUR-buh-lee colonelKUR-nul awryuh-RY segueSEG-way cacheKASH

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce mischievous?

mischievous is pronounced MIS-chiv-us, written /ˈmɪstʃɪvəs/ in IPA. Three syllables only: MIS-chiv-us.

How many syllables are in mischievous?

three: MIS-chiv-us. The stress falls on “MIS”.

What is the most common mistake with mischievous?

mis-CHEE-vee-us — four syllables, with an invented i before the ending. People model it on “devious” and “previous”, which really do have that -ee-us ending. Mischievous does not: there is no i after the v in the spelling, and no extra syllable in the sound.

The full sound library

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