"There are clouds in the sky."

Translation: 하늘에 구름이 꼈어.

[Kathi881421]

What is "꼈어"?

[wintertriangles]

끼다 can be a few things, but in this case it's "to be hanging" or something along those lines. So, "In the sky, clouds are hanging". It's in past tense because they were already "hung" there.

[pluureng]

Then how do you say "there were clouds in the sky"?

[oee16]

My impression is:

끼다 - be covered

구름이 끼다 - be cloudy, be covered with clouds

구름이 꼈어 - is/was (has been and still is) covered with clouds; is/was cloudy.

구름이 껴요 - is covering with clouds (current situation) or is (being) cloudy/clouds over (repetitive; habitual occurence)

구름이 꼈던 - was (had been) covered with clouds (but is no longer the case)

[Leenpcy]

Well , im not an expert but i guess you can say it as 하늘에 구름이 꼈었어요

[Pamela909830]

I hope someone answers this good question!

[Mario__R]

Me too.

[BackBandy]

This is 끼다 hanging + 었 past tense (for state) + 어 casual talking.
하늘에 구름이 끼다 is not for talking, it is for announcing statement like forecast.

[mcguirepatr]

Excellent question!

[MrShister]

"끼다" in this context means to hang or cloud;
For example "안개 끼다" means to shroud in fog.

[Pamela909830]

I reported that hints on hover are missing for 꼈어.
Why can't we say, "하늘에 구름이 있어요"?

[Pamela909830]

3 months later I am still wondering about this question. Does anyone know?

[oee16]

I believe you can especially when you want to be specific e.g.

하늘에 검은 구름이 많이 있었습니다
There were lots of dark clouds in the sky

하늘에 구름 한 점 없어요
There is not a cloud in the sky

"구름이 끼다" is just idiomatic for "It's cloudy." as far as I understand.

[Pamela909830]

I'm just curious. Which language is your first language? Are you a native Korean speaker? Anyway, I am thankful for the many times you have answered my questions! :)

[SashoNr1]

I answered 하늘에 구름이 꼈어, and was corrected that I should have used 있어 instead, but the last word was not among the options.

[oee16]

Both are correct depending on what you want to convey to the listener.

,• clouds as clusters of vapour:

하늘에 구름이 있어 - there are (clusters of) clouds in the sky.

• clouds as a misty mass

하늘에 구름이 꼈어 - Lit. The clouds are suspended or the mass of clouds remains suspended in the sky. In other words, there are clouds in the sky.
This expression is best translated into English as "The sky is cloudy" in my opinion.

[SashoNr1]

Thanks for the clarification. I think I encountered a bug, because 있어 was not a possible answer (I'm using the bubbles with suggestions instead of writing out full answers, will do the latter when I repeat the tree), yet was suggested as correct.

[Pamela909830]

weird! Why would it mark your answer wrong when that is the same as the translation above? Maybe you accidentally hit a wrong key on your answer?

[SashoNr1]

They marked it as a typo, but accepted it. The weird part is that the alternative suggestion wasn't even listed as an option.