🗣️ Word Bank: Pronunciation & The "School Analogy"
🎙️ How to Sound Like a Real Scientist:
In the cards below, the syllables in BOLD CAPITALS are the parts you say louder and with more emphasis. For example: when saying Mitochondria, say the "KON" loudly like Donkey Kong! 🦍
Organelle
💡 Sound Trick: Rhymes with "bell"
A specialised structure inside a cell with a specific job ("tiny organ").
The specialised rooms and equipment inside the school.
Nucleus
💡 Sound Trick: Starts with "new", plural is nuclei (NEW-klee-eye)
The control centre of the cell containing DNA instructions.
The Headteacher’s Office making all the big school decisions.
Nucleolus
💡 Sound Trick: Plural is nucleoli (new-KLEE-oh-ly)
The dense dark spot inside the nucleus that acts as the "ribosome factory", building molecular protein machines.
The specialised engineering workshop inside the Headteacher’s office that manufactures the kitchen robots.
mRNA (Messenger RNA)
💡 Sound Trick: m stands for Messenger
A disposable single-stranded photocopy of a single gene recipe carrying instructions from the nucleus to ribosomes.
A single laminated photocopy of page 42 from the master cookbook, sent to the kitchen so the master book stays safe.
Amino Acids
💡 Sound Trick: 20 different building blocks from our food
The 20 individual chemical building blocks in the cytoplasm that ribosomes snap together in specific orders to make proteins.
Individual Lego bricks or Scrabble letters that can be snapped together to build thousands of different models.
tRNA (Transfer RNA)
💡 Sound Trick: t stands for Transfer / Truck
Molecular delivery trucks in the cytoplasm that fetch specific amino acids and deliver them to matching codons on the ribosome.
Kitchen delivery carts bringing the exact ingredient called for by each step of the recipe.
Cytoplasm
💡 Sound Trick: Starts like "sigh"
The jelly-like fluid filling the cell where chemical reactions happen.
The school corridors and classrooms where daily activities happen.
Cell Membrane
💡 Sound Trick: Sounds like "brain"
A flexible outer skin that controls what enters and exits the cell.
The school security gates checking passes at the front entrance.
Mitochondria
💡 Sound Trick: Singular is mitochondrion
Powerhouses of the cell; releases energy through aerobic respiration.
The school boiler room or solar panels generating electricity.
Ribosome
💡 Sound Trick: Starts like "rye"
Tiny molecular machines that assemble amino acids into proteins.
The school kitchen/canteen cooking up nutritious meals.
Cell Wall
💡 Sound Trick: Plants only!
A tough outer layer of cellulose fibres that supports the plant.
The strong brick perimeter walls holding up the school building.
Chloroplast
💡 Sound Trick: Starts like "chlorine"
Green discs containing chlorophyll that absorb sunlight for photosynthesis.
Rooftop solar-powered cookers making free food from sunlight.
Permanent Vacuole
💡 Sound Trick: Starts like "vacuum"
A huge central bubble of watery cell sap keeping the cell firm (turgid).
A giant pressurized water tank keeping the water pressure high.
Chromatin
💡 Sound Trick: Starts like "crow"
DNA thread neatly wrapped around histone protein spools ("beads on a string").
Headphone wires wound neatly around a spool so they never tangle.