Applied to pronunciation, a prescriptive approach involves telling people that this word should be pronounced in this way, that word should be pronounced in that way, and so on. For example, one might say that the word nuclear should be pronounced ['njuːklɪəɹ] or ['nuːklɪəɹ]. Applied to pronunciation, a descriptive approach involves telling people that some people pronounce a word in this way, while others pronounce a word in that way. For example, one might say that the word nuclear is pronounced ['njuːklɪəɹ] by some people, and ['nuːkjələɹ] by some other people. (See nucular)
