The preterite of dormirse is used to express when someone fell asleep at a specific moment in the past. For example, when you want to say “I fell asleep during the movie” – “Me dormí durante la película.”

This is an o to u stem-changing reflexive verb in the preterite tense. The stem change only occurs in the third person singular (se durmió) and plural (se durmieron) forms.

Conjugations

Conjugations of Dormirse (to fall asleep) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Castilian Spanish):

The Preterite of dormirse expresses specific instances of falling asleep.

To fall asleep (specific moment): Used for the moment of falling asleep, for example Me dormí durante la película (I fell asleep during the movie), or Se durmieron tarde anoche (They fell asleep late last night).

To drift off: Indicates unintentionally falling asleep, for example Se durmió en la clase (They dozed off in class).

Examples

Examples of Dormirse in the Preterite (Past) Tense

Me dormí durante la película. (I fell asleep during the movie.)

¿A qué hora te dormiste anoche? (What time did you fall asleep last night?)

El bebé se durmió en mis brazos. (The baby fell asleep in my arms.)

Nos dormimos muy tarde. (We fell asleep very late.)

Los niños se durmieron después del cuento. (The children fell asleep after the story.)

Me dormí en el sofá viendo televisión. (I fell asleep on the couch watching TV.)

Te dormiste durante la clase. (You fell asleep during class.)

Se durmió en el tren. (He/she fell asleep on the train.)

Nos dormimos bajo las estrellas. (We fell asleep under the stars.)

Se durmieron temprano esa noche. (They fell asleep early that night.)

Me dormí sin querer. (I fell asleep without meaning to.)

¿Por qué te dormiste tan tarde? (Why did you fall asleep so late?)

El gato se durmió en mi regazo. (The cat fell asleep in my lap.)

Nos dormimos al amanecer. (We fell asleep at dawn.)

Se durmieron durante el viaje. (They fell asleep during the trip.)

Conjugations with English Translations

Conjugations of Dormirse (to fall asleep) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Castilian Spanish) with English Translations:

This post covers Castilian Spanish. For Latin American Spanish, click here

Synonyms

The Preterite tense is also known as the Simple Past, Past Simple, Definite Past, Absolute Past, or Past Tense Indicative in English, and as Pretérito Perfecto Simple, Pretérito Indefinido, Pretérito Simple, Pasado Simple, or Pretérito de Indicativo in Spanish.