Ergo, the Ogre

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Welcome to the daily Three Things Challenge.
Use your imagination and creativity using one, two or all three words that may or may not be related. There are no restrictions regarding length, style, or genre, though please keep it family friendly.

Tag your responses with 3TC, #threethingschallenge or TTC, and you can add Di’s logo if you wish.

Our three words today are:
PRONOUNCE
SLANG
FORTITUDE

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“Class, may I have your attention, please?” Ms. Applebaum clapped her hands at her group of 8th-graders.

The students glanced at her and turned around in their seats.

“Thank you.” Ms. Applebaum cleared her throat. “It has come to my attention that we are having trouble pronouncing certain words.”

Johnny raised his hand.

“Yes, Johnny?”

He stood up and said, “That’s cuz some of ’em got too many syllables! I say we gotta shorten ’em up!” He sat back down looking pleased with himself.

The teacher sighed. “Oh, dear. There is so much wrong with those two sentences.”

Johnny neglected to raise his hand and stood up defiantly. “Like what?” His voice cracked.

“Well, to begin with, we’ve got to stop using slang.” Ms. Applebaum explained. “It’s because, not just cuz. And for “them” — pronounce the entire word not just the last two letters, and instead of “gotta” we should say, have to or must.”

The class groaned.

With that, Ms. Applebaum turned to the blackboard and began writing a list of words:

• Asterisk
• Anemone
• Quinoa
• Cacophony

“Now, who can pronounce the first word and use it in a sentence?”

Johnny’s hand shot up like a flare. “I can!”

He stood up and said: “The axterix is above the number eight on the keyboard.” He proudly sat down again.

Next, Brittany raised her hand.

“Yes, Brittany?”

She stood up. “The asterisk is a star-shaped character used in printing or writing for various purposes.” Brittany gave Johnny a smug glance as she sat down.

“Very good, Brittany!”

Johnny had a come-apart. “Hey, wait a minute! That’s what I just said!”

“It’s asterisk, Johnny. Not axterix. There are no exes in asterisk.” Ms. Applebaum explained.

Johnny fidgeted. “Well, I was close,” he mumbled.

“How about the next word? Who’d like to try?”

No one made a sound, let alone raise a hand.

“Okay, I will call on…Timothy.”

Timothy stood up and announced, “The ayne-moan lives in the ocean!”

“That may be true, Timothy, but the creature is called an uh-nem-uh-nee.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Timothy acquiesced. “But why can’t we just call it a clownfish? Same thing.”

Giggles all around the room.

“Because we are here to learn pronunciation. We’ll save synonyms for another day.”

Ms. Applebaum continued, “Let’s do one more.” They were wearing down her fortitude. “Who wants to try?”

Monica slowly raised her hand. “May I try?

“Yes, Monica. Please do.”

“Kwin-o-ah is supposed to be good for you?” She said hesitantly.

“It’s pronounced Keen-wah, Monica. But it is very good for you.”

“Thank you, Ms. Applebaum.” Monica took her seat.

“All I know is that I’m not eating anything I can’t pronounce.” Johnny declared. “Just like I won’t do algebra. Multiplying letters is insane and dangerous! Who knows what can happen? Letters are for spelling words and numbers are for cyphering.”

Johnny’s announcement was too much for the class. They broke out in uncontrollable laughter and Ms. Applebaum was about to snap.

“Class!!” she yelled. “Stop the cacophony immediately! I have had enough!”

Timothy stood again. “Ms. Applebaum? Why not just say noise?”