Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Iba a llamar a mi mamá, pero me quedé dormido en el sofá. - I was going to call my mom, but I fell asleep on the couch.

an intention or plan in the past that didn’t happen (or we’re focusing on the intention), similar to:
- “I was going to call”
- “I was about to call”

In this sentence:

Iba a llamar a mi mamá = I was going to call my mom (but something got in the way).
Then pero me quedé dormido explains why the plan didn’t happen.

If you said:

Llamé a mi mamá = I called my mom (completed action; you actually did it).
Llamaba a mi mamá = could mean I used to call my mom (habit), or I was calling my mom (interrupted action), depending on context.

So iba a llamar focuses specifically on the unfulfilled intention in the past.

What tense is “iba”, and why is it used here?

Iba is the imperfect tense of ir (to go), first person singular:

yo iba = I was going / I used to go

In the construction ir (imperfect) + a + infinitive, the imperfect is used to:

Set up background intentions, plans, or things that were about to happen in the past.
It does not say the action actually happened; it highlights the plan.

So iba here is:

imperfect “ir” (yo iba)
used with a llamar to mean I was going to call.

Why do we say “llamar a mi mamá” and not “llamar mi mamá”?

Spanish uses the personal “a” before a direct object that is:

a specific person
or a pet (often treated like a person)

So:

llamar a mi mamá = to call my mom
(mom is a specific person → needs the personal a)

Without the a, the sentence would be incorrect:

✗ llamar mi mamá (wrong in standard Spanish)

This is why there are two a’s in a row:

Iba a llamar a mi mamá
- first a: from iba a (going to)
- second a: the personal a before mi mamá

Is it okay to have two “a”s in a row in “iba a llamar a mi mamá”?

Yes, it’s completely normal and correct.

The two a’s come from different things:

iba a llamar → the a belongs to the structure ir a + infinitive (was going to call).
llamar a mi mamá → the a is the personal “a” before a person (to call my mom).

So you naturally get:

Iba a llamar a mi mamá...

Speakers don’t try to avoid this; it sounds natural in Spanish.

What does “me quedé dormido” literally mean, and why not just “me dormí”?

Literally:

me quedé dormido = I remained/ended up in a sleeping state → idiomatically: “I fell asleep”

Breakdown:

quedarse = to stay / to end up / to remain
dormido = asleep
me quedé dormido (preterite) = I ended up asleep / I fell asleep

You can say:

me dormí en el sofá = I fell asleep on the couch.

Both are used in real life. The nuance:

me quedé dormido often emphasizes the unintentional or accidental nature:
- I (accidentally) fell asleep / I ended up falling asleep
me dormí is more neutral:
- I fell asleep (could be intentional or not, depending on context)

In this sentence, me quedé dormido fits well because it suggests the speaker dozed off unintentionally instead of calling.

Why is “dormido” masculine? Would it change if a woman is speaking?

Yes, “dormido” agrees in gender and number with the subject.

Here, the subject is yo (I), and we infer that the speaker is male, so:

me quedé dormido = said by a male speaker

If a woman is speaking, she would say:

me quedé dormida

Other possible forms:

nos quedamos dormidos (group of all men or mixed)
nos quedamos dormidas (group of all women)

So you must change -o / -a / -os / -as according to who fell asleep.

Why is “me” used in “me quedé dormido”?

The me is a reflexive pronoun, and it is required because:

quedarse dormido is a pronominal verb (it normally uses a reflexive pronoun).
The subject “I” and the “receiver” of the action are the same person.

Structure:

yo me quedé dormido
- yo = subject
- me = reflexive pronoun (myself)
- quedé = I remained / I ended up
- dormido = asleep

Without me, it would be incorrect:

✗ quedé dormido (ungrammatical in this meaning)

So the reflexive me is just part of how quedarse dormido is formed.

Why is “me quedé” in the preterite but “iba” is in the imperfect?

There are two different time perspectives:

Iba a llamar a mi mamá
- imperfect (iba)
- describes a past intention / plan in progress: I was going to call my mom.
pero me quedé dormido en el sofá
- preterite (me quedé)
- describes a completed event that interrupts or prevents the plan: but I fell asleep on the couch.

This contrast (imperfect for background / intention, preterite for a specific completed event) is very common in Spanish:

Iba a salir, pero empezó a llover.
I was going to go out, but it started to rain.

Same idea here.

Could I just say “me dormí en el sofá” instead of “me quedé dormido en el sofá”?

Yes, you can. Both are correct:

me quedé dormido en el sofá
me dormí en el sofá

Differences in feel:

me quedé dormido:
- very common, especially for dozing off unintentionally
- sounds a bit more descriptive: I ended up asleep / I nodded off
me dormí:
- a bit more neutral: I fell asleep
- could be intentional (e.g. I went to bed and fell asleep), or not—context decides.

In your sentence about calling your mom, me quedé dormido nicely emphasizes that you unexpectedly drifted off instead of making the call.

Why is it “en el sofá” and not just “en sofá”?

In Spanish, when you talk about a specific, known object like “the couch” in a real situation, you almost always use a definite article:

en el sofá = on the couch

Leaving out the article (en sofá) would sound unnatural or wrong here. Spanish usually needs el / la / los / las where English can omit “the.”

Compare:

English: I’m on the couch.
Spanish: Estoy en el sofá.

So en el sofá is just the normal, idiomatic way to say on the couch.

What’s the difference between “mamá” and “madre”? Why use “mamá” here?

Both mean “mother,” but they differ in tone:

mamá:
- informal, affectionate
- like “mom / mommy”
- very common in everyday speech in Latin America
madre:
- more neutral or formal
- like “mother”
- used in formal contexts, documents, or sometimes for emphasis.

In a casual sentence about calling your mom, mamá is the natural choice in Latin American Spanish:

Voy a llamar a mi mamá.
= I’m going to call my mom.

You could say a mi madre, but it sounds slightly more formal or distant in many contexts.

Why does “mamá” have an accent mark?

Mamá has an accent mark on the last “a” to show the stress is on that syllable:

ma-MÁ

Without the accent (mama), the stress would fall on “ma” by default:

MA-ma (different pronunciation and meaning; could mean s/he sucks from the verb mamar)

So:

mamá (with accent) = mom
mama (no accent) = generally s/he sucks (verb form), not “mom”

The accent mark avoids confusion and indicates the correct stress pattern.

Is “mi mamá” ever written with an accent on “mi”, like “mí mamá”?

No. It should always be:

mi mamá (no accent on mi)

Reason:

mi (no accent) = my (possessive adjective)
mí (with accent) = me (stressed object pronoun), as in para mí (for me)

In mi mamá, mi is a possessive (my), so it never takes an accent.

Would a Latin American speaker say this differently from a Spaniard?

This sentence is perfectly natural in both Latin America and Spain. However, there are a couple of possible regional variations:

Some speakers (especially in parts of Spain) might say “sofá” or “sillón” depending on the furniture:
- sofá = couch/sofa
- sillón = armchair/easy chair
In terms of vocabulary for “mom”:
- mamá is very common in both regions.
- Some people might say mi madre in more formal or neutral contexts.

But “Iba a llamar a mi mamá, pero me quedé dormido en el sofá.” is completely understandable and natural in Latin America and also fine in Spain.

Can I move “me” in “me quedé dormido”, like in English “I fell asleep myself”?

No. In Spanish, the reflexive pronoun has a fixed position with a conjugated verb:

It goes before the conjugated verb:
- me quedé dormido
- te quedaste dormido
- se quedó dormido

You cannot say:

✗ quedé me dormido
✗ quedé dormido me

Those are ungrammatical. The order me quedé dormido is correct and fixed.

Could I just say “Iba a llamar a mi mamá, pero me dormí” and omit “en el sofá”?

Yes. Grammatically and idiomatically, that’s fine:

Iba a llamar a mi mamá, pero me dormí.
= I was going to call my mom, but I fell asleep.

With en el sofá, you add extra detail about where it happened. Without it, the focus is only on the fact that you fell asleep, not the location. Both versions are natural; it just depends on how much detail you want.