Dormir Conjugation

Dormir conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a French verb from its principal parts by inflection. French verbs are conventionally divided into three conjugations (conjugaisons) with the following grouping:

• 1st group: verbs ending in -er (except aller).
• 2nd group: verbs ending in -ir, with the gerund ending in -issant
• 3rd group: verbs ending in -re (with the exception of irregular verbs).
  • 1st section: verbs ending in -ir, with the gerund ending in -ant
  • 2nd section: verbs ending in -oir.
  • 3rd section: verbs ending in -re
  • aller.

The first two groups follow a regular conjugation, whereas the third group follows an irregular one. The third group is considered a closed-class conjugation form,[1] meaning that most new verbs introduced to the French language are of the first group (téléviser, atomiser, radiographier), with the remaining ones being of the second group (alunir).

Dormir Basics

Within irregular -ir verbs, there are some patterns. Two groups exhibit similar characteristics and conjugation patterns. Then there is a final, large category of extremely irregular -ir verbs that follow no pattern.

Dormir lies in the first group of irregular -ir verbs that display a pattern. It includes dormir, mentir, partir, sentir, servir, sortir, and all of their derivatives, such as repartir. All of these verbs share this characteristic: They all drop the last letter of the radical (root) in the singular conjugations. For instance, the first-person singular of dormir is je dors (no “m”), and the first-person plural is nous dormons, which retains the “m” from the root. The more you can recognize these patterns, the easier it will be to remember conjugations.

Introducing The Verb Dormir

Ah, sleep! So essential to life, and at times so elusive to some of us! At one time or another you may find yourself talking about your sleeping habits with friends. For this lesson we’ll see how that is done in Spanish with the verb dormir (pronounced dor-MEER), ‘to sleep’.

Conjugation Patterns

Generally speaking, most French verbs ending in -mir, -tir, or -vir are conjugated this way. Such verbs include:

• Dormir > to sleep
• Endormir > to put/send to sleep
• Redormir > to sleep some more
• Rendormir > to put back to sleep
• Départir > to accord
• Partir > to leave
• Repartir > to restart, set off again
• Consentir > to consent
• Pressentir  > to have a premonition

• Ressentir > to feel, sense
• Sentir > to feel, to smell
• mentir > to lie
• Se repentir > to repent
• Servir > to serve, to be useful
• Sortir > to go out

Dormir In Context

Perhaps one never misses sleep more than when a new life has been added to a family. To understand dormir in context, let’s look at an example. You see your friend Mariana with her new baby. Like any new mother, Mariana’s sleep patterns have changed, and you both want to talk about it.

Seeing the lovely little one, you ask Mariana:

¿Duerme por toda la noche? (Does she sleep all night?)

Mariana: No, ella no duerme toda la noche. Ella se despierta cada dos horas. (No, she doesn’t sleep all night. She wakes up every two hours.)

You: Entonces tú no duermes mucho, ¿verdad? (So you don’t sleep a lot, right?)

Mariana: No, yo no duermo mucho. (No, I don’t sleep a lot.)

You: ¿Y duermen ustedes durante el día? (And do you all sleep during the day?)

Mariana: Sí, dormimos después del almuerzo. ¡Yo duermo cuando ella duerme! (Yes, we sleep after lunch. I sleep when she sleeps!)

Dormir Conjugation Spanish

Spanish verbs fall into different groups, and each group is conjugated a little differently. If you’re going to master Spanish verbs like dormir, you need to be able to identify which group a verb belongs to: regular (follows regular conjugation rules for -ar, -er, and -ir verbs), stem-changing (morphs depending on how you use it in a sentence), spelling-changing (has consonant-spelling changes in some forms to follow pronunciation rules), or reflexive (reflects the action back on the subject of the sentence).

The following examples show you dormir in action:

• ¿Duermes bien, José? (Do you sleep well, José?)

• Sí. Yo duermo bien todas las noches.(Yes. I sleep well every night.)

In the preterit, dormir undergoes an o-to-u stem change in the third-person singular and third-person plural forms only. All the other forms conjugate normally. Take a look.

Dormir Preterite Conjugation

The preterite tense is used to talk about things that happened in the immediate past or short term past. The verb dormir is regular in the preterite tense for all pronouns except the third person singular and plural. These pronouns have an -o to -u shift.

Auxiliary Verbs

There are two auxiliary verbs in French: avoir (to have) and être (to be), used to conjugate compound tenses according to these rules:

• Transitive verbs (direct or indirect) in the active voice are conjugated with the verb avoir.
• Intransitive verbs are conjugated with either avoir or être (see French verbs#Temporal auxiliary verbs).
• Reflexive verbs (or “pronominal verbs”) are conjugated with être.
• être is used to form the passive voice. être is itself conjugated according to the tense and mood, and this may require the use of avoir as an additional auxiliary verb, e.g. Il a été mangé (It was eaten).