A thoughtful listener checks meaning without turning every small error into a correction.

There is a difference between making sure you understood and grading how someone said it. Both involve paying close attention, but only one of them keeps the other person talking. Corrections about a wrong word, a mispronounced name, a date off by a year, tend to move the conversation onto your ground and away from what they were trying to tell you. Most small errors do not change the meaning at all, which is exactly why they can be left alone.

Try holding your next correction unless it changes what is actually being said. If you are unsure of the meaning, ask about the meaning rather than the wording.