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El bibliotecario está durmiendo en el pasillo.

El bibliotecario está durmiendo en el pasillo.
The librarian is sleeping in the aisle.
From Lesson 148:Irregular gerunds (pidiendo, leyendo)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about El bibliotecario está durmiendo en el pasillo.

Why is the word for sleeping durmiendo instead of dormiendo?
The infinitive verb is dormir. Normally, to make an -ing word (a gerund), you take off the -ir and add -iendo. However, dormir is irregular. The vowel in its stem changes from o to u, making it durmiendo.
I always mix up library and bookstore. How can I remember that bibliotecario means librarian?
El bibliotecario works in a biblioteca (library). It helps to remember that it shares a root with the English word bibliography. A bookstore is a librería, which looks like the English word library but is actually a false friend!
Why do we use está here rather than es?
To say someone is doing something right now, Spanish uses the present continuous tense. This is always formed with the verb estar (here, está) plus the gerund (the -ing word, like durmiendo). You can never use ser to form this tense.
Can pasillo mean anything other than aisle?
Yes! Besides the aisle of a library, supermarket, or airplane, el pasillo is also the standard word for a hallway or corridor in a house, school, or office building.

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