Conjugation of dormir | Catalan Grammar

Dormir means “to sleep,” and it is an important model of the pure third conjugation: Central Catalan has dormo, dorms, dorm, dormim, dormiu, dormen, with no incoative -eix- extension. Unlike Spanish dormir, Catalan does not change o to ue or u. That cross-language difference makes an otherwise regular paradigm surprisingly easy to overcomplicate.

The principal parts are dormo – dormia – dormí – dormiré – dormi – dormís – dormit. The verb forms all productive tenses with haver, has a regular participle, and is not defective. What takes more care is meaning: plain dormir describes sleep or spending the night, while adormir-se and quedar-se adormit foreground falling asleep.

💡

Keep the single stem dorm- throughout. Spanish-style forms such as duermo and durmiendo do not belong to Catalan; the Catalan forms are dormo and dormint.

Nonfinite forms

Form	Catalan	English guide
Infinitive	dormir	to sleep
Perfect infinitive	haver dormit	to have slept
Gerund	dormint	sleeping
Perfect gerund	havent dormit	having slept
Participle	dormit; dormida, dormits, dormides	slept; asleep in limited adjectival uses

Compound tenses use haver + dormit, and the participle is normally invariable: elles han dormit. The agreeing forms belong to adjectival uses, although ordinary Catalan generally says adormit rather than dormit for “asleep.” The gerund is dormint, never durmint or dormint-se unless the sentence independently requires a pronominal construction.

Indicative: simple and periphrastic tenses

Tense	jo	tu	ell / ella / vostè	nosaltres	vosaltres	ells / elles / vostès
Present	dormo	dorms	dorm	dormim	dormiu	dormen
Imperfect	dormia	dormies	dormia	dormíem	dormíeu	dormien
Periphrastic past	vaig dormir	vas dormir	va dormir	vam dormir	vau dormir	van dormir
Simple past	dormí	dormires	dormí	dormírem	dormíreu	dormiren
Future	dormiré	dormiràs	dormirà	dormirem	dormireu	dormiran
Conditional	dormiria	dormiries	dormiria	dormiríem	dormiríeu	dormirien

The periphrastic past is the neutral completed past in Central conversation. The synthetic simple past is chiefly (formal/literary) there, although it remains part of living speech in some Valencian and Balearic areas (regional). First- and third-person singular dormí are identical; context supplies the subject.

Normalment dormo set hores, però avui m'he llevat abans que sonés el despertador.

I normally sleep seven hours, but today I got up before the alarm went off.

Quan vivíem al centre, dormíem amb les finestres tancades pel soroll.

When we lived downtown, we slept with the windows closed because of the noise.

Dissabte vam dormir en un refugi abans de pujar al cim.

On Saturday we spent the night in a mountain hut before climbing to the summit.

Demà dormiré a casa de la meva germana perquè el tren surt de matinada.

Tomorrow I'll sleep at my sister's place because the train leaves before dawn.

Compound tenses

Indicative tense	jo	tu	ell / ella / vostè	nosaltres	vosaltres	ells / elles / vostès
Present perfect	he dormit	has dormit	ha dormit	hem dormit	heu dormit	han dormit
Pluperfect	havia dormit	havies dormit	havia dormit	havíem dormit	havíeu dormit	havien dormit
Past anterior	haguí dormit	hagueres dormit	hagué dormit	haguérem dormit	haguéreu dormit	hagueren dormit
Future perfect	hauré dormit	hauràs dormit	haurà dormit	haurem dormit	haureu dormit	hauran dormit
Conditional perfect	hauria dormit	hauries dormit	hauria dormit	hauríem dormit	hauríeu dormit	haurien dormit

The past anterior is (formal/literary). Its periphrastic counterpart is vaig haver dormit, vas haver dormit, va haver dormit, vam haver dormit, vau haver dormit, van haver dormit. A weak pronoun precedes the auxiliary: Hi hem dormit dues nits, not hem hi dormit.

Aquesta nit he dormit d'una tirada i em trobo molt millor.

Tonight I slept straight through and I feel much better.

Quan ens van trucar, els nens ja havien dormit més de dues hores.

When they called us, the children had already slept for more than two hours.

Subjunctive and imperative

Subjunctive tense	jo	tu	ell / ella / vostè	nosaltres	vosaltres	ells / elles / vostès
Present	dormi	dormis	dormi	dormim	dormiu	dormin
Imperfect	dormís	dormissis	dormís	dormíssim	dormíssiu	dormissin
Present perfect	hagi dormit	hagis dormit	hagi dormit	hàgim dormit	hàgiu dormit	hagin dormit
Pluperfect	hagués dormit	haguessis dormit	hagués dormit	haguéssim dormit	haguéssiu dormit	haguessin dormit

Restricted periphrastic series	jo	tu	ell / ella / vostè	nosaltres	vosaltres	ells / elles / vostès
Subjunctive past	vagi dormir	vagis dormir	vagi dormir	vàgim dormir	vàgiu dormir	vagin dormir
Subjunctive past anterior	vagi haver dormit	vagis haver dormit	vagi haver dormit	vàgim haver dormit	vàgiu haver dormit	vagin haver dormit

These periphrastic subjunctive forms have restricted (regional/formal) distribution. The ordinary Central choices are dormís and hagués dormit.

Addressee	Affirmative	Negative
tu	dorm	no dormis
vostè	dormi	no dormi
nosaltres	dormim	no dormim
vosaltres	dormiu	no dormiu
vostès	dormin	no dormin

La pediatra recomana que el nen dormi una mica després de dinar.

The pediatrician recommends that the child sleep for a while after lunch.

Dorm una estona; jo conduiré fins a la propera àrea de servei.

Sleep for a while; I'll drive to the next service area.

Dormir can express duration (dormir vuit hores), manner (dormir bé, malament, profundament), location (dormir al sofà), or spending the night somewhere (dormir a Girona). English “sleep at someone's” becomes dormir a casa d'algú. The characteristic collocations dormir com un soc, dormir d'una tirada, dormir la migdiada, and no aclucar l'ull are neutral or informal everyday language.

Amb el soroll de les obres, aquesta matinada no he pogut aclucar l'ull.

With the construction noise, I couldn't get a wink of sleep early this morning.

Plain dormir describes the state. Adormir-se is the most explicit verb for entering that state, while quedar-se adormit often suggests that the transition happened unintentionally. Dormir-se also occurs in everyday usage, but it should not be treated as a mechanically reflexive version required every time someone sleeps. Likewise, a numb limb is normally expressed with adormir-se: Se m'ha adormit la cama.

Em vaig quedar adormida al sofà mentre esperava que acabés la rentadora.

I fell asleep on the sofa while I was waiting for the washing machine to finish.

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Use dormir for the state and its duration; use adormir-se or quedar-se adormit when the transition into sleep matters.

(Regional: Valencian and Balearic) first-person present dorm is standard within the relevant paradigms, where Central Catalan generally has dormo. Valencian also uses the imperfect subjunctive series dormira, dormires, dormira, dormírem, dormíreu, dormiren. These are systematic regional forms, not errors; the main tables use the Central baseline.

Common Mistakes

❌ Cada nit duermo amb la finestra oberta.

Incorrect—duermo is Spanish; Catalan keeps the stem dorm-.

✅ Cada nit dormo amb la finestra oberta.

Every night I sleep with the window open.

❌ El nadó està durmint des de les nou.

Incorrect—Catalan has the regular gerund dormint, with o.

✅ El nadó està dormint des de les nou.

The baby has been sleeping since nine.

❌ Ahir hem dormits nou hores.

Incorrect—the participle after haver is normally invariable.

✅ Ahir hem dormit nou hores.

Yesterday we slept nine hours.

❌ No dorm ara, que encara hem de sopar.

Incorrect as a negative command—the present subjunctive is required.

✅ No dormis ara, que encara hem de sopar.

Don't sleep now; we still have to have dinner.

❌ Se m'ha dormit la cama després d'estar tanta estona assegut.

Incorrect in the usual standard expression—a limb becomes numb with adormir-se.

✅ Se m'ha adormit la cama després d'estar tanta estona assegut.

My leg has gone numb after sitting for so long.

Key Takeaways

Dormir is a pure third-conjugation verb: dormo, dormim, dormint, dormiré, dormi, dormís, dormit. It has no Spanish-style vowel change and no incoative extension. Use haver for every compound tense, dorm for the familiar affirmative command, and adormir-se or quedar-se adormit when you mean “fall asleep.”

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