Spanish Verb – Dormir Conjugation

What will the sheep count?:

Conjugation of the verb Dormir

The perfect time of each day for many people, no matter if you are someone who takes afternoon naps, sleeps a lot at night, or are the rare 5% of the population that gets less than 5 hours of rest at any time of the day and wake up ready to face the world; we all enjoy sleeping after a long day of work. And although the word Dormir applies to that “natural temporary state of rest during which an individual becomes physically inactive”, to learn its conjugations we need to be wide awake, are you active?

Dormir, another member of the Irregular family

Let’s do a brief review on what this means: it is considered an irregular verb the one that must change in (almost) each case in order to conjugate, and as the verb Dormir loves to have several versions of itself depending on the occasion, it is a member of this beloved little group.

This verb may seem a bit complicated, but after the progress you make everyday by learning Spanish, it will be very easy to learn all about the moment when we get to count sheep.

Sleeping Beauty verbals

Verbals are words that decided to stop being verbs, and need other words in order to be used. No matter the person, tense, number, these words will remain the same (hooray!). The verb Dormir has three verbals: the infinitive, the gerund and the participle. Let’s move on to the examples:

	Verbal	Common Use	Example	English
Infinitivo	dormir (to sleep / sleeping)	Non conjugated / Noun	Dormir me hace feliz	Sleeping makes me happy
Gerund	durmiendo (sleeping)	Adverb	Estuve durmiendo con mi perro	I was sleeping with my dog
Participe	dormido (asleep)	Adjective	Me quedé dormido en clase	I fell asleep in class

Let’s get down to business: conjugate

One of the infallible and classic methods that exist to learn how to conjugate the verb Dormir is to memorize the ways in which it is conjugated, as there are several cases. However, native Spanish speakers don’t memorize these conjugations, they use them! Many Spanish teachers, and I include myself, strongly recommend having practical exercises with real conversations to obtain “naturalness” in the way of speaking

Dormir Conjugation: Indicative Mood

You have to take into account the focus that is used when a person is speaking, what the verb or phrase is saying in general, and the most common focus in Spanish is the indicative mood. Although less common, don’t forget that the auxiliary verb Haber (to have) is an important part of its compound tenses!

Simple Tenses of the Indicative Mood

Subject	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Conditional	Future
	(sleep)	(slept)	(slept)	(would sleep)	(will sleep)
yo	duermo	dormí	dormía	dormiría	dormiré
tú	duermes	dormiste	dormías	dormirías	dormirás
él/ella/usted	duermes	durmió	dormía	dormiría	dormirá
nosotros	dormimos	dormimos	dormíamos	dormiríamos	dormiremos
ellos/ellas/ustedes	duermen	durmieron	dormían	dormirían	dormirán

Some examples:

Anoche dormiste muy bien luego de bañarte – You slept very well last night after taking a bath.

Nosotros dormiremos más tranquilos luego de terminar los exámenes finales – We will sleep more soundly after finishing our final exams.

Saber Conjugation: Compound Tenses of the Indicative Mood

Subject	Present Perfect	Past Perfect (pluperfect)	Past Pluperfect	Conditional	Future Perfect
	(have/has sleep)	(had slept)	(had slept)	(would have sleep)	(will have sleep)
yo	he dormido	hube dormido	había dormido	habría dormido	habré dormido
tú	has dormido	hubiste dormido	había dormido	habrías dormido	habrás dormido
él/ella/usted	ha dormido	hubo dormido	había dormido	habría dormido	habrá dormido
nosotros	hemos dormido	hubimos dormido	habíamos dormido	habríamos dormido	habremos dormido
ellos/ellas/ustedes	han dormido	hubieron dormido	habían dormido	habrían dormido	habrán dormido

Dormir Conjugation: Subjunctive Mood

With this mood, we hypothesize or express our wishes. The number of verb tenses is reduced, being divided equally into simple and compound.

Simple Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood

Subject	Present	Imperfect	Imperfect 2	Future
yo	duerma	durmiera	durmiese	durmiere
tú	duermas	durmieras	durmieses	durmieres
él/ella/usted	duerma	durmiera	durmiese	durmiere
nosotros	durmamos	duermiéramos	durmiésemos	durmiéremos
ellos/ellas/ustedes	duerman	durmieran	durmiesen	durmieren

More examples:

Tienes que dejar el perro fuera para que durmamos tranquilos – You have to leave the dog outside so that we can sleep peacefully.

Si durmiese en otra cama, descansaría mejor – If I slept in another bed, I would rest better.

Compound Tenses of the Subjunctive Mood

Subject	Present	Imperfect	Imperfect 2	Future
yo	haya dormido	hubiera dormido	hubiese dormido	hubiere dormido
tú	hayas dormido	hubieras dormido	hubieses dormido	hubieres dormido
él/ella/usted	haya dormido	hubiera dormido	hubiese dormido	hubiere dormido
nosotros	hayamos dormido	hubiéramos dormido	hubiésemos dormido	hubiéremos dormido
ellos/ellas/ustedes	hayan dormido	hubieran dormido	hubiesen dormido	hubieren dormido

Dormir Conjugation: Imperative Mood

We enter the last mood you are going to memorize, with fewer subjects to learn (fortunately): the bossy (or Imperative) mood. With this conjugation, you can express orders. And since you can’t order yourself or a third party, you will only learn 3 persons and 1 verb tense. Possible uses of the Imperative mood? Children, pets, or that roommate who won’t stop eating your stuff.

Imperative Mood’s Conjugations

Subject	Affirmative	Negative
	(sleep / let's sleep)	(don't sleep / let's not sleep)
tú	duerme	no duermas
nosotros	durmamos	no durmamos
ustedes	duerman	no duermas

Examples:

No duermas hasta que termines de estudiar – Don’t sleep until you finish studying.

Ustedes duerman en la habitación, nosotros durmamos en la sala – You sleep in the bedroom, we sleep in the living room.

Spanish Verb Dormir – Quiz/Worksheet

As I mentioned before, practicing will be your best ally in mastering Spanish, and since our goal is to help you, we will leave you some sentences to review what we have learned in this lesson. Fill in the correct conjugation in the spaces below:

1. Mi gato _________ todo el día. (My cat sleeps all day)

2.Yo no _________ con mis hermanos. (I don’t sleep with my siblings)

3.No pude _________ bien anoche, estoy nervioso por la consulta médica. (I couldn’t sleep well last night, I’m nervous about the doctor’s appointment)

4.Con estas pastillas, tu abuela _________ mejor. (Your grandmother will sleep better with these pills)

5.El sábado mis amigas y yo _________ juntas, tendremos una pijamada. (On Saturday my girlfriends and I will sleep together, we’re having a sleepover)

6.No _________ sin cenar. (Don’t sleep without dinner)

7.Nosotros _________ en la otra habitación. (Let’s sleep in the other room)

8.Anoche _________ juntos, pero te quedaste despierto jugando videojuegos. (Last night we would have slept together, but you stayed up playing video games)

9.Yo _________ tranquilo si dejara el café por las noches. (I would sleep peacefully if I gave up coffee at night)

10.Ella no _________ bien anoche porque estaba preocupada por su novio. (She didn’t sleep well last night because she was worried about her boyfriend)

Answers

1.Duerme

2.Duermo

3.Dormir

4.Dormirá

5.Dormiremos

6.Duermas

7.Durmamos

8.Hubiésemos dormido