Dormir is one of the most important irregular verbs in Spanish — it appears in virtually every GCSE and A-Level task.
Practice dormir free →Dormir means 'to sleep', and it is a stem-changing verb GCSE students meet early when describing routine and health. The o changes to ue in the present (duermo, duermes, duerme), and in the preterite the third persons change o to u (durmió, durmieron) — a small but frequently-tested detail. The reflexive dormirse means 'to fall asleep'. Talking about how much you sleep and whether you slept well all draws on this verb, so it is worth getting the stem changes automatic.
Quick facts
Dormir (to sleep) is a high-frequency irregular -ir verb.
Real sentences across different tenses — the kind of thing you'd actually say or write.
Duermo ocho horas (I sleep eight hours). Note the o→ue change.
The reflexive dormirse: me dormí en el sofá.
Third persons change o→u: durmió, durmieron.
Useful for daily-routine descriptions: when you go to bed, how you slept.
Fixed expressions worth knowing — they come up in listening, reading and writing tasks.
Idiomatic expressions
Dormir is an o→ue stem-changer in the present (duermo, duermes, duerme) but not in nosotros/vosotros (dormimos, dormís). In the preterite, only él and ellos forms change: durmió, durmieron.
Stem-changing (o→ue) in all forms except nosotros and vosotros.
A stem change (o→u) applies in the él and ellos forms only.
The gerund of dormir is irregular: durmiendo (o→u stem change).
Type conjugations from memory and get instant feedback. That's how you actually build the automatic recall the exam needs — not from reading tables.
Practice dormir now →Three questions. Press Enter to check each answer.
yo: duermo, tú: duermes, él: duerme, nosotros: dormimos, vosotros: dormís, ellos: duermen
Dormir is irregular.
Use dormir in multiple tenses to show range — present, preterite and future at minimum. This is a key criterion for higher GCSE marks.
Verbs that are easy to confuse with dormir or that behave like it.
This reference is written for UK GCSE and A-Level Spanish learners and their teachers. It is designed for exam revision: every form is checked against standard conjugation rules, and the examples reflect the registers and topics that come up in the AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas specifications. Dormir is a high-frequency verb and appears often in exam papers. For active recall, use the free practice tool rather than only reading the tables.