February 4, 2012 - Word of the Day: fog

There's been a lot of fog around Minnesota in recent days, so this is a good word of the day. Fog forms when there's a lot of water vapor low to the ground. It's kind of like a cloud. My students have some trouble when using the words "fog" and "foggy."

The word "fog" is a noun:

• There's some fog over the lake.
• Fog can make driving dangerous.
• Fog often rolls in from large bodies of water like lakes and oceans.

The word "foggy" is an adjective. It can be used to describe the condition of fog outside, but it's also used to describe condensation that forms on mirrors and on glass:

• Sometimes my glasses get all foggy when I come inside on a cold day.
• The mirror in the bathroom gets foggy if you take a long, hot shower.
• London is well known for it's foggy weather.
• I love foggy weather!
• It's very foggy today.

Sometimes "fog" is used as a verb:

• The windshield on my car fogs up a lot in the winter if I leave my car outside.
• The front window of that store is all fogged up because the ventilation* is bad.

* ventilation: movement of air; the removal of moisture from the inside to the outside.

Click here to go to the Word of the Day page.