French guides · Verb tables + audio
Dormir: to sleep — but not to go to bed.
Dormir means “to sleep” — the state of being asleep, and nothing else. English lets “sleep” stretch over going to bed, dropping off and staying asleep. French uses three separate verbs for those, and using dormir for all of them is one of the quieter learner mistakes: understandable every time, and never quite what a French speaker would say.
Présent — the m that drops
The same pattern as partir and sortir: the final consonant of the stem — here the m — disappears in the singular and comes back in the plural. Dors, dors, dort, then dormons, dormez, dorment.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je dors | I sleep | |
| tu dors | you sleep | |
| il / elle dort | he / she sleeps | |
| nous dormons | we sleep | |
| vous dormez | you sleep | |
| ils / elles dorment | they sleep |
The infinitive ends in -ir, but there is no -iss- in the plural: it is nous dormons, never nous dormissons. French -ir verbs come in two unrelated families and this is the smaller, older one.
Sleeping, falling asleep, going to bed
Three verbs, three different moments. Mixing them up will be understood, but it is the kind of thing that marks a sentence as translated.
| French | Means | The moment |
|---|---|---|
| se coucher | to go to bed | getting into it |
| s’endormir | to fall asleep | dropping off |
| dormir | to sleep | being asleep |
| se réveiller | to wake up | the end of it |
J’ai dormi à onze heures means you were asleep at eleven o’clock. If you mean you went to bed then, you want je me suis couché à onze heures. And if you could not drop off, that is je n’arrivais pas à m’endormir — not dormir.
Two more worth having: faire la grasse matinée is to have a lie-in, literally “to do the fat morning”, and dormir comme une marmotte — to sleep like a marmot — is what French says where English says “like a log”.
Passé composé — dormi
With avoir, participle dormi — no agreement to worry about. J’ai bien dormi, “I slept well”, is the standard answer to tu as bien dormi ? at a French breakfast table.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’ai dormi | I slept / have slept | |
| tu as dormi | you slept / have slept | |
| il / elle a dormi | he / she slept / have slept | |
| nous avons dormi | we slept / have slept | |
| vous avez dormi | you slept / have slept | |
| ils / elles ont dormi | they slept / have slept |
Imparfait — was sleeping
From dormons, so the m is everywhere: je dormais. This is the natural tense for the verb — sleeping is a state that lasts, and states take the imparfait. Je dormais quand tu as appelé, “I was asleep when you called”.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je dormais | I used to sleep / was sleeping | |
| tu dormais | you used to sleep / was sleeping | |
| il / elle dormait | he / she used to sleep / was sleeping | |
| nous dormions | we used to sleep / was sleeping | |
| vous dormiez | you used to sleep / was sleeping | |
| ils / elles dormaient | they used to sleep / was sleeping |
Futur and conditionnel
The infinitive is the stem, with nothing removed: je dormirai.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je dormirai | I will sleep | |
| tu dormiras | you will sleep | |
| il / elle dormira | he / she will sleep | |
| nous dormirons | we will sleep | |
| vous dormirez | you will sleep | |
| ils / elles dormiront | they will sleep |
Conditionnel — would sleep
Je dormirais mieux sans bruit — “I’d sleep better without the noise”.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je dormirais | I would sleep | |
| tu dormirais | you would sleep | |
| il / elle dormirait | he / she would sleep | |
| nous dormirions | we would sleep | |
| vous dormiriez | you would sleep | |
| ils / elles dormiraient | they would sleep |
Subjonctif — dorme
Regular, from the ils stem. Il faut que tu dormes — “you need to sleep”.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je dorme | (that) I sleep | |
| tu dormes | (that) you sleep | |
| il / elle dorme | (that) he / she sleep | |
| nous dormions | (that) we sleep | |
| vous dormiez | (that) you sleep | |
| ils / elles dorment | (that) they sleep |
Impératif — sleep well
Dors bien ! and dormez bien ! are ordinary goodnights. The most common bedtime phrase of all, though, uses a different verb entirely: fais de beaux rêves, “sweet dreams”.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| dors ! | sleep! (to one person you know) | |
| dormons ! | let’s sleep! | |
| dormez ! | sleep! (formal, or to a group) |
Plus-que-parfait — had slept
Je n’avais pas dormi — “I hadn’t slept” — usually offered as the excuse for something that followed.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’avais dormi | I had slept | |
| tu avais dormi | you had slept | |
| il / elle avait dormi | he / she had slept | |
| nous avions dormi | we had slept | |
| vous aviez dormi | you had slept | |
| ils / elles avaient dormi | they had slept |
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Quick answers
Dormir, answered.
The questions that come up while you are learning the table.