Stretch or extend. Native speakers.

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Hawk1911

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Question for native speakers.
I've got this sentence - Sometimes mists may lie on the surface of the water and stretch towards the clouds.
Is it possible to say like that or it will sound awkward? - Sometimes mists may lie on the surface of the water and extend towards the clouds.
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Tarheel

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It seems that the person is talking about fog and not mists. (But I suppose they are similar.) In any case, it is something that occurs at ground level. So either sentence makes perfect sense to me.

:)
 

Charlie Bernstein

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Stretch is good, extend is awkward.

I would delete may. The word sometimes makes clear that it does not always happen, so may is unneeded and redundant.
 

Raymott

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Stretch is good, extend is awkward.
How is 'stretch' good? Mists don't stretch. I'd say 'extend' is much better. Obviously both words are being used in a colloquial way.
 

Tarheel

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A mist is a light rain, and it doesn't either extend or stretch. As for a fog, it is a cloud. It's a cloud that sits on the surface of the planet.

~Ron
 

probus

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To me it sounds quite natural. I would use it myself.
 

Charlie Bernstein

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How is 'stretch' good? Mists don't stretch. I'd say 'extend' is much better. Obviously both words are being used in a colloquial way.

Where I live, it does seem to be stretching upward. We call it sea smoke.
 

probus

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I don't think we did a very good job of teaching there. We talked among ourselves, but we did not give the OP his or her answer: yes.
 

Raymott

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I don't think we did a very good job of teaching there. We talked among ourselves, but we did not give the OP his or her answer: yes.
Yes, it's OK, or yes, it will sound awkward?
 

probus

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To me, extend sounds natural.
 

Barb_D

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Mist and fog are the same thing except for visibilty. You can see further in mist. Fog won't let you see more than 1 km.

Yes, technically it's a "cloud on the ground" but I have no problem imagining what the writer means by saying it extends up towards the clouds.
 
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