Sleeping takes time; falling asleep is the beginning of that state.

The idea

Dormir describes sleep; dormirse describes falling asleep. The pronoun agrees with the subject: me, te, se, nos, os, se.

Patterns to compare
FormaSignificado
dormirestar dormido; pasar tiempo durmiendo
dormirseempezar a dormir

Examples

  • La bebé duerme durante el viaje.The baby sleeps during the journey.
  • Mi abuelo se duerme en el sofá.My grandfather falls asleep on the sofa.
  • Dormimos ocho horas cada noche.We sleep eight hours each night.
  • Me duermo después de leer un rato.I fall asleep after reading for a while.
  • El gato duerme bajo la mesa.The cat sleeps under the table.
  • Los niños se duermen durante la película.The children fall asleep during the film.

Read-aloud uses a synthetic Spanish voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.

Watch out

Do not omit se when a person falls asleep: se duerme marks the transition.

Try it yourself

  1. Choose the form that fits. Cada noche Ana ___ ocho horas. (duerme / se duerme)

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    duerme

    duerme: eight hours gives the duration of Ana’s sleep.

  2. Choose the form that fits. Al escuchar la canción, yo ___ rápidamente. (duermo / me duermo)

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    me duermo

    me duermo: the speaker begins sleeping after hearing the song.

  3. Choose the form that fits. Después del cuento, los niños ___ en seguida. (duermen / se duermen)

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    se duermen

    se duermen: the children start sleeping after the story.

Use it today

Choose the form that fits the duration or the onset of sleep.