Good friends protect your dignity even while correcting your behavior.

There is a way to tell someone they are wrong that leaves them intact, and a way that does not. The first happens privately, addresses the behavior rather than the person, and assumes they will want to fix it. The second turns correction into a small humiliation, which produces defensiveness instead of change. The content can be identical; only the handling differs.

Before correcting someone, ask whether the setting protects them. Say the difficult thing where nobody else can hear it, and say what you think of them alongside it. People accept far more when their standing is not on the line.