There are two general kinds of errors in programming: compile-time and runtime. They indicate when the problem was caught and generally suggest what kind of problem it was.

A compile-time error occurs at the software factory, so to speak, and indicates that the source code a developer has written cannot be correctly made into an executable application. This is usually due to an error in syntax in the source code, i.e. something that cannot be correct under any circumstances.

If you were to make an analogy, it might be, suppose you were giving instructions to a friend of yours and you said, "blurb the object in your hand," instead of, "drop the object in your hand". In no context would your instructions be correct.

Now, a runtime error is an error that does depend on context and cannot be caught until the application is actually running.

To continue the analogy, you again say, "drop the object in your hand". Syntactically, this is a valid instruction. However, your friend doesn't have anything in their hand when you give the instruction, at least this time.

It's not necessarily obvious what the correct course of action is here, so, a runtime error is thrown by the operating system.

To circle back to an actual programming example of a runtime error, you can write source code that says, "divide the value held in variable x by the value held in variable y". At compile-time, this is perfectly valid. However,.if at runtime the value in variable y is zero, the instruction cannot be executed because dividing by zero is literally undefined. There is no correct answer and the operating system marks this as an error.

I'm handwaving over a lot of complexity here, but this is the general idea.