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Dormir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to sleep, rest”.
Below are all of the conjugations for dormir in Spanish, in all three moods (indicative/indicativo, subjunctive/subjunctivo and imperative/imperativo) and all of the tenses, for each pronoun.
The vosotros pronoun is mainly used in mainland Spain, and is the informal second-person plural – it could be considered the Spanish version of “y’all”. It is rarely found in Latin America, where ustedes is used instead.
The vos form is used instead of tú in some Spanish speaking countries of South America, especially the Southern Cone (e.g. Argentina and Uruguay) and has a different conjugation.
| English Infinitive | to sleep, rest |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | dormir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está durmiendo) and past continuous (estaba durmiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. sleeping).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he dormido and hubiera dormido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have slept).
| Gerundio / Gerund | durmiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | dormido |
The basic form of speech, el indicativo is used for making statements, talking about facts, events and things that are certain and objective.
The present tense is as it sounds – it’s for talking about things that are currently going on, which are habitual, or which generally exist. In English, this would be “I sleep” or “they sleep”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | duermo |
| Tú | duermes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | duerme |
| Nosotros / as | dormimos |
| Vosotros / as | dormís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | duermen |
| Vos | dormís |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I slept” or “she slept” in English.
In Spanish, there are two past tenses where just one is used in English; the pretérite infefinido is typically used to refer to a concrete, specific moment in time.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | dormí | I slept |
| Tú | dormiste | You slept |
| Él / Ella / Usted | durmió | He / she / you slept |
| Nosotros / as | dormimos | We slept |
| Vosotros / as | dormisteis | You slept |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | durmieron | They / you slept |
| Vos | dormiste | You slept |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was sleeping” or “she was sleeping” in English, and is typically used to describe things and set a scene, talk about events without a specific timeframe, or talk about habitual events or states in the past.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | dormía | I was sleeping |
| Tú | dormías | You were sleeping |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dormía | He was / she was / you were sleeping |
| Nosotros / as | dormíamos | We were sleeping |
| Vosotros / as | dormíais | You were sleeping |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dormían | They / you were sleeping |
| Vos | dormías | You were sleeping |
The perfect tense is for talking about things which happened in the past but are still related to the present or continue into the present.
In English, these use the auxiliary verbs ‘have’ and ‘has’ – i.e. “I have slept” and “she has slept”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he dormido | I have slept |
| Tú | has dormido | You have slept |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha dormido | He has / she has / you have slept |
| Nosotros / as | hemos dormido | We have slept |
| Vosotros / as | habéis dormido | You have slept |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han dormido | They / you have slept |
| Vos | has dormido | You have slept |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would sleep” or “she would sleep”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | dormiría | I would sleep |
| Tú | dormirías | You would sleep |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dormiría | He / she / you would sleep |
| Nosotros / as | dormiríamos | We would sleep |
| Vosotros / as | dormiríais | You would sleep |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dormirían | They / you would sleep |
| Vos | dormirías | You would sleep |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will sleep” or “they will sleep”.
It is more commonly used for making a hypothesis about the present. To talk about the future, Spanish speakers frequently use “ir + a + infinivo”, e.g. “van a dormir” means “They are going to sleep”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | dormiré | I will sleep |
| Tú | dormirás | You will sleep |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dormirá | He / she / you will sleep |
| Nosotros / as | dormiremos | We will sleep |
| Vosotros / as | dormiréis | You will sleep |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dormirán | They / you will sleep |
| Vos | dormirás | You will sleep |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | duerma |
| Tú | duermas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | duerma |
| Nosotros / as | durmamos |
| Vosotros / as | durmáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | duerman |
| Vos | duermas |
There are two ways to form the imperfect subjunctive.
The first option sees verbs ending in -era (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ara (for -ar verbs), while the second sees verbs ending in -ese (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ase (for -ar verbs).
There is no difference between these two forms, and Spanish speakers use them interchangeably.
| Pronoun | Spanish era/ara | Spanish ese/ase |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | durmiera | durmiese |
| Tú | durmieras | durmiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | durmiera | durmiese |
| Nosotros / as | durmiéramos | durmiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | durmierais | durmieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | durmieran | durmiesen |
| Vos | durmieras | durmiese |
The future subjunctive is no longer used in modern-day Spanish, apart from in literary and legal contexts, and there is no need to learn it.
It is formed the same as the past/imperfect subjunctive, but with -e endings instead of -a endings.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | durmiere |
| Tú | durmieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | durmiera |
| Nosotros / as | durmiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | durmiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | durmieren |
| Vos | durmieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “sleep!” and “don’t sleep!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | duerme | no duermas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | duerma | no duerma |
| Nosotros / as | durmamos | no durmamos |
| Vosotros / as | dormid | no durmáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | duerman | no duerman |
| Vos | dormí | no duermas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya dormido |
| Tú | hayas dormido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya dormido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos dormido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis dormido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan dormido |
| Vos | hayas dormido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera dormido / hubiese dormido |
| Tú | hubieras dormido / hubieses dormido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera dormido / hubiese dormido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos dormido / hubiésemos dormido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais dormido / hubieseis dormido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran dormido / hubiesen dormido |
| Vos | hubieras dormido / hubieses dormido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere dormido |
| Tú | hubieres dormido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere dormido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos dormido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis dormido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren dormido |
| Vos | hubieres dormido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté durmiendo |
| Tú | estés durmiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté durmiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos durmiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis durmiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén durmiendo |
| Vos | estés durmiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera durmiendo / estuviese durmiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras durmiendo / estuvieses durmiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera durmiendo / estuviese durmiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos durmiendo / estuviésamos durmiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais durmiendo / estuvieseis durmiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera durmiendo / estuviese durmiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras durmiendo / estuvieses durmiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere durmiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres durmiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere durmiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos durmiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis durmiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere durmiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres durmiendo |
Voseo is the practice of using ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’ as the second-person singular pronoun, and is common throughout much of South America.
There are various versions of ‘voseo’ used throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The conjugations for the most common type – used throughout Argentina, parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguya and Uruguay are below.
The present indicative (presente de indicativo) and affirmative imperative (imperativo) have different conjugations from the tú form, while all other tenses generally use the tú form.
| Tense | Vos Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Present Indicative Presente de Indicativo | Vos dormís |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos dormiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos dormías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos dormirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos dormirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos duermas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos durmieras / Vos durmiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos dormí |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no duermas |