Breakdown of Hoy el cielo está nublado, pero la cabaña sigue siendo acogedora.
Questions & Answers about Hoy el cielo está nublado, pero la cabaña sigue siendo acogedora.
In Spanish, cielo is a normal countable noun (el cielo = the sky), so it normally takes an article.
- Hoy el cielo está nublado.
Literally: Today *the sky is cloudy.*
Leaving out the article (Hoy cielo está nublado) is incorrect in standard Spanish.
Even when talking about “the sky” in a very general way, Spanish still tends to use the article:
- Me gusta mirar el cielo. – I like looking at (the) sky.
So in this sentence el is just the normal definite article for cielo.
Because estar is usually used for temporary states or conditions, and weather conditions are treated that way.
- estar nublado = to be cloudy (right now / today / at this moment)
- ser nublado sounds strange in modern Spanish; it would suggest being inherently cloudy as a permanent characteristic, which doesn’t fit normal usage.
Compare:
- Hoy el cielo está nublado. – Today the sky is cloudy.
- Normalmente el cielo aquí está despejado. – Normally the sky here is clear.
So: use estar + [weather adjective] for “it’s sunny / cloudy / clear” etc.
Grammatically, it is both, but in practice it works like an adjective.
- nublado comes from the verb nublar (to cloud over).
- As with many past participles, it has become a common adjective describing a state.
So in el cielo está nublado, está is a linking verb (is), and nublado describes the sky: the sky is cloudy. You don’t need to think of it as a passive (“has been clouded”) in everyday use.
Yes, very natural Spanish.
- Hoy está nublado. – Today it’s cloudy.
(Literally: Today is cloudy. The subject is just “today” in Spanish, but we understand it as “the weather today is cloudy”.)
Both are correct:
- Hoy está nublado.
- Hoy el cielo está nublado.
The second version just makes the subject (the sky) explicit.
sigue siendo = seguir (to continue) + siendo (gerund of ser).
It means “continues to be / is still”.
- la cabaña sigue siendo acogedora
= the cabin is still cosy / continues to be cosy.
If you said only:
- La cabaña es acogedora. – The cabin is cosy.
…it’s a simple description, without the contrast of “even though the sky is cloudy, that hasn’t changed”.
Using sigue siendo clearly links to the first part: Despite the cloudy sky, the cabin *remains cosy.*
You might hear seguir + adjective in some contexts, but with this particular adjective and this kind of neutral description, seguir siendo acogedora is the most natural and standard option.
- seguir + siendo + adjective is the normal pattern:
- sigue siendo importante – it is still important
- sigue siendo caro – it is still expensive
- sigue siendo acogedora – it is still cosy
La cabaña sigue acogedora would sound unusual or incomplete to many speakers, especially in Spain. Stick with sigue siendo acogedora.
Because it is agreeing with la cabaña, which is a feminine noun.
- la cabaña → feminine singular
- So the adjective must also be feminine singular: acogedora
Other examples:
- una casa acogedora – a cosy house
- un salón acogedor – a cosy living room (masculine: -or instead of -ora)
- unas habitaciones acogedoras – cosy rooms (feminine plural)
In Spanish, adjectives change form to match the gender and number of the noun.
Acogedor / acogedora combines several ideas:
- physically comfortable and pleasant (warm, nice lighting, cushions, etc.)
- emotionally warm, inviting, where you feel at ease
- in some contexts, also “welcoming” in a social sense (friendly people).
So una cabaña acogedora suggests:
- a warm, pleasant, maybe rustic cabin
- a place where you feel at home and relaxed
In English, “cozy” or “cosy and welcoming” are good equivalents.
Yes, these orders are all grammatically correct, with only slight differences in emphasis:
Hoy el cielo está nublado.
Slight focus on today; sounds very natural.El cielo hoy está nublado.
Focus on the sky, adding “today” as extra information.El cielo está nublado hoy.
Also possible; in many contexts it feels a bit more “afterthought-like”, as if you’re adding hoy at the end.
All three can be used; the original one is very typical.
Both pero and aunque can express contrast, but they work differently.
pero = but / however
It joins two independent statements:- Hoy el cielo está nublado, pero la cabaña sigue siendo acogedora.
aunque = although / even though
It introduces a subordinate clause:- Aunque hoy el cielo está nublado, la cabaña sigue siendo acogedora.
Both versions are natural and mean almost the same. The difference is mainly structural:
- With pero, it feels like “A is true, but B is also true.”
- With aunque, it feels like “Although A is true, B (surprisingly) is true.”
In everyday speech, the pero version is very common and sounds neutral and natural.
These words are related but not interchangeable:
- cabaña: a small rustic house, usually made of wood or stone, often in the countryside or mountains. Very natural with acogedora.
- cabina: cabin in the sense of an enclosed small space (ship cabin, airplane cabin, phone box, changing cabin, etc.), not usually a little house in the woods.
- choza: hut, shack – often poorer, more primitive, may sound less comfortable.
So cabaña acogedora strongly suggests a nice, cosy little cabin, which fits the sentence.
In standard peninsular Spanish:
cielo → [ˈθje.lo] (in most of Spain)
- ci = [θi] (like English th in think
- ee)
- then it glides into -elo → THEE-eh-lo (one smooth syllable cie-: [θje])
- ci = [θi] (like English th in think
cabaña → [ka.ˈβa.ɲa]
- ca-BA-ña (stress on ba): ca-BA-nya
acogedora → [a.ko.xe.ˈðo.ɾa]
- a-co-ge-DO-ra (stress on do)
- g before e is a throaty (like the “j” in jamón)
- d between vowels is soft, almost like the “th” in this
In Latin America, cielo would be [ˈsjelo] (like an English s sound instead of θ), but for Spain, [ˈθje.lo] is the standard.