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    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

    1. 1Three syllables only: MIS-chiv-us.
    2. 2Stress the first syllable and let the other two stay short.
    3. 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

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    Three speakers per accent

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    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 manɪi as in sitss as in seetʃch as in chairvv as in veryəa 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-meehyperbolehy-PUR-buh-leecolonelKUR-nulawryuh-RYsegueSEG-waycacheKASH

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    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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