Spanish word of the week: dormir

This week’s Spanish word of the week is dormir. 

Dormir is a verb that means to sleep. To hear how dormir is pronounced, you can click the icon below.

El enfermo dormía tranquilamente. The patient was sleeping peacefully.

Remember that the –o– of the stem changes to –u– in the –endo form:

No hagas mucho ruido, que Rosa está durmiendo. Don’t make a lot of noise, Rosa’s sleeping.

Dormir also has several other meanings that in English we express with different words or phrases than sleep. It can be used with an object to mean to send … to sleep:

La música clásica me duerme. Classical music sends me to sleep.

In the reflexive, dormirse, it means to fall asleep:

Al poco rato se durmió. Shortly afterwards she fell asleep.

And you use the participle, dormido, with estar to mean to be asleep:

Ahora los niños están dormidos. The children are asleep now.

Come back next week to learn a new word!