dormido (adj.) vs. durmiente (adj.)
Amigos
I encountered the adjective "durmiente" today. Up until now I had only known the adjective "dormido/a".
If "dormido/a" means "asleep" and "durmiente" means "sleeping" but both are adjectives then aren't they interchangeable ? I heard this song on the radio where the guy sings "Soy cómo niño dormido" which I assumed must mean "I'm like a sleeping boy" or "I'm like a boy who is asleep" However, today I wanted to send a picture to my girlfriend that I had taken of her and her kid sleeping and so on the bottom I wrote "Mis hermosas dormidas". My Spanish co-worker said "No, its 'Mis bellas durmientes'". I looked that up later and found that it's also an adjective.
- dormido/a - adj. - asleep
- durmiente - adj. - sleeping
The more I thought about this the worse it got. The only way I'd ever have said "I'm sleeping" is using the progressive verbform "Estoy durmiendo". Now I'm wondering if I could also say "Estoy durmiente" meaning I'm expressing the state that I'm in (in a sleeping state). This, in turn, is the same thing as "Estoy dormido" - I am asleep. Below is my breakdown as I currently see it.
- I am sleeping (pres. progressive) - Estoy durmiendo
- I am asleep (adj. 1) - Estoy dormido/a.
- I am (in a) sleeping (state) (adj 2.) - Estoy durmiente
- I have slept (PP) - He dormido
In another thread someone said things like "The working woman" can't be translated directly so you'd use something like "La trabajadora" but that is a noun. Is this in any way similar to "Las bellas durmientes" ? I wouldn't think so since here we have an adjective. Also, why would "las bellas dormidas" not work ? Can you guys help me clear things up ?
8 Answers
If "dormido/a" means "asleep" and "durmiente" means "sleeping" but both are adjectives then aren't they interchangeable ?
Are the adjectives asleep and sleeping totally interchangeable? Why don't you say "The asleep beauty" for the tale?
Ok, English and Spanish are different in this respect anyway. When you use estar plus the past participle of a verb (which could be regarded as an adjective), you are stating the result of that action. "Estar dormido" means that the person's current state is the consequence of having fallen asleep. Notice that dormir means both to do the transition from being awake to being asleep, as well as remain in that slumber. On the other hand, the verbal adjective durmiente, like many adjectives ending in -nte denote an action, so this time is not about a change of state, but a ongoing process. La bella dormida, using the present participle, sounds like someone put her to sleep (The put-to-sleep beauty), while La bella durmiente sounds like she is sleeping (The sleeping beauty.) Quite a difference.
Now, estoy durmiendo is not regarded as a verb plus an adjective, but a periphrasis, pretty much like a proper verbal tense (ie. I am sleeping,) and it has to be understood as a whole, not considering both words separately. It is a continuous tense, if you wish (Spanish grammars don't call it that.) Estoy durmiente is a contradiction in terms: estar is there to indicate a state (a state being the result of something after having been completed), and durmiente indicates an action that is still going on. In grammar, state and action verbs are regarded as opposites for a good reason.
Summing up:
dormido/a = that has fallen asleep or has been put to sleep
durmiente = that is sleeping [to be used with nouns]
durmiendo = sleeping [to be used with estar]
Finally, an anecdote from Cela, winner of the Nobel prize of Literature and part of the Real Academia Española (the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language). This guy was once in the parliament, dozing, and another person nearby, trying to be witty said something like:
«Ssssh, no hagas ruido, que el Sr. Cela está dormido»
Cela opened his eyes and said:
«No estoy dormido, estoy durmiendo, que no es lo mismo estar jodido que estar jodiendo».
I'll let you apply the same logic to the above sentence as a homework. 
P.S. Not all natives follow the above distinctions so carefully, so don't be surprised if you see some "broken rules" from time to time.
Hey , nice question , actually I didn't know about it. Yeah somehow you seem to be right about your guess and your confusion.. Here I've found ;
Los sinónimos de durmiente: dormido, acostado, yacente, tendido, echado
But I've just asked it to a spanish friend and he told me " dormido is better. " because durmiente means someone who sleeps a lot. I think because of that it's said la bella durmiente because she sleeps during years..
So , Estoy dormida I think you cannot say...Because if you are sleeping how are you able to talk? 
But maybe it'd be more normal to say ; Estoy casi dormida... I think it means something like , I cannot keep my eyes open.. So, it seems to me that durmiente needs to be used with ser because it's become a habit... I hope this helps you... 
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meeaee
According to the D R A E, a better translation of durmiente as an adjective is "that sleeps" and as a noun "sleeper."
Lazarus
Man you really know this stuff don't you ? Your posts make my head hurt but yet they are very helpful !
However, it seems this sentence can be interpreted 2 ways now. As per your suggestion : durmiente = that is sleeping [to be used with nouns]. "La bella durmiente" - "The sleeping beauty". Here "durmiente" is an adjective. Then again, according to your own suggestion in one of my other threads : "The working woman" - "La trabajadora". So my buddy suggested that "La bella durmiente" is actually "La durmiente bella" - "The beautiful (girl) sleeper". Here "durmiente" is a noun just like "trabajadora". Which of the 2 is it ? As far as your homework goes I assume the joke is in the fact that he interprets "dormido" as a past participle ? "I am not slept, I am sleeping cause it's not the same to be f..ed than to be f...g". I get that but if you translate "dormido" as an adjective then you can say it right ? Also let me ask a stupid question. If I'm sleeping, is it not implied that I fell asleep or was put to sleep in some shape or form ? Not sure I feel the difference there. Having talked to one spanish native and one salvadoreña I'm coming to the conclusion that, unless you watch the Disney channel, you won't really come across this word. Do you have a real life, every-day example for this word ?
I am not sure about this either. But here is another example of durmiente: La Belleza Durmiente ~ The Sleeping Beauty.
I am wondering if durmiente is used only as an adjective directly modifying a noun without the verb estar. For ex. I don't think you would say: La Belleza está durmiente but instead use the participle dormido or the gerund durmiendo.
Or perhaps it depends on where one lives? I look forward to reading answers from the experts. Good question.
See my friend, Dormido is the past participle of the verb dormir. So it denotes the state of being asleep or having fallen asleep .. Example : el se ha dormido (he has fallen asleep) and the past participles can also be used as adjectives describing or denoting the state of being .. Example : el esta dormido (see here we have not used the reflexive pronoun se ,, which means that we have used the past participle as an adjective) this means .. he is asleep (sleeping is his state of being right now) .. now Durmiente on the other hand is a proper attributive adjective that doesn't need the verb estar to intorduce it .. you need to use it directly with nouns .. example la bella durmiente, un perro durmiente (it can be interpreted as a dog who keeps sleeping most of the time) but if I would use Dormido I would need estar to introduce it which would mean that the dog is currently in the state of sleep .. el perro esta dormido.. .. SEE MY FRIEND .. adjectives fall under various classifications and types(not all adjectives work the same way), I don't wan't to get into nittygritties here else you may be rendered completely confused BUT just know this .. DURMIENTE is used more as an attributive adjective (used more often than not to describe an attribute/characteristic of some thing/or some one for example you say beautiful girl, lazy boy etc,) dormido on the other hand is a verbal participal which can be used as a PREDICATIVE adjective which in conjunction with the verb estar(to be) will describe the current state of being asleep. HOPE you understand it now.
