#learningenglish

I'm growing some tomatoes in my garden. I went to pick some cherry tomatoes and discovered these two attached - twin tomatoes!

The first time I have had this.

Mini English vocabulary lesson:

Singular & plural nouns

1 tomato

2 (or more) tomatoes

Ambivalent

(adj.) having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone; unable to choose between two conflicting attitudes

Henry felt ambivalent about the small liberal arts college: the tight-knit community appealed to him, but he worried about missing the resources of a bigger school. 🏫

It comes from the German “ambivalenz,” coined in 1910 by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler to describe patients holding opposing emotions (like love and hate) toward the same person at once.

Built from Latin roots: “ambi-” (both, on both sides) + “valentia” (strength, capacity), it’s literally “strength on both sides.” The word crossed into English psychiatric literature within a few years and escaped into everyday use by the 1930s, losing its clinical edge along the way.

‼️ Most people use “ambivalent” when they mean “indifferent.”

They’re NOT the same. Indifference is not caring. Ambivalence is caring too much, in two opposite directions at once.

💪 Know the difference; it’ll sharpen your writing and your essays (and maybe even pay off on the SAT). 📝

Extol

(v.) to praise highly and lavishly

At the ceremony, the principal extolled the students’ perseverance and dedication throughout the challenging year. 👏🏆🏅

Its history is quite literal. The word ultimately comes from the Latin verb extollere, “to lift up, raise high, or elevate.” That verb combines:

ex- — “up,” “out,” or “away”

tollere — “to lift,” “raise,” or “bear”

So, at its root, to extol someone is to “lift them up.” Over time, the physical image became figurative: lifting a person or quality above others by speaking of it with strong approval.

English borrowed the word in the late Middle Ages, initially in forms such as extollen, likely influenced by French and ecclesiastical Latin usage. By the 1500s, extol had settled into its modern spelling and sense: to praise highly.

🎨 [Art by cherryfruitart, YUNiversity art intern]

“Cut the cord” has several meanings:

to end a connection with someone

to stop relying on someone or something (especially for financial support)

to cancel subscriptions to expensive cable or satellite services

For example,

After decades of relying on his parents for financial support, Henry’s cousin finally cut the cord and moved out on his own.  🚛📦 When Henry made a new spending budget for 2022, he decided to cut the cord and say goodbye to Direct TV.

EUPHORIA

[ yoo-fawr-ee-uh, -fohr- ]

noun

a state of intense happiness and self-confidence

For example, “Christy smiled when she heard Jungkook sing that she was the cause of his euphoria.” 😍

🦄 YUNicorns, pop songs are a great source of vocabulary. (Grammar, not so much.) 👈

🔴 “Seeing red” 😡

(idiom) to be so furious that you lose control of your emotions and can’t think clearly

When Henry found out his coworker had taken credit for months of his work, he was seeing red; he could barely get through the meeting without exploding.

Most people assume it’s rooted in bullfighting 🐂; the matador waves a red cape to provoke the bull into a charge. But here’s the twist: bulls are actually colorblind. It’s the movement of the cape, not the color, that sets them off. Still, the imagery of red = rage stuck with us, and the phrase entered everyday English to describe that white-hot, uncontrollable anger we all recognize.