Warm Up Your Brain

Tell me. Have you ever missed an important plan by falling asleep?

How To Say I Fell Asleep in Korean

잠 들었어요

[jam deuleo-sseoyo]
I fell asleep

Basic form : 잠들다
반말(informal non-honorific) form : –
Negative form with 해요 speech style : 잠 안들었어요 / 안잠들었어요

잠들다 is a very interesting Korean expression even though it’s very commonly used. 잠 means ‘sleep’ in Korean as a noun and 들다 can mean so many things but I think it means ‘enter’, ‘come in’, ‘move in’ or ‘dye’ in this phrase. So, it literally says ‘sleep come into you’ or ‘you’re dyed by sleep’. Although, it seems impossible to find the origin so I can only guess.

잠들었어요 can be written with spacing between 잠 and 들었어요. 잠들었어요. 잠 들었어요 and 잠들었어요 are perfectly same.

You Should Know

잠들었어요 can not be used in any progressive tense like ‘I’m falling asleep’ because 잠들다 already means ‘fell asleep’ itself. It’s most natural with past tense or future tense.

Also, it’s not natural to use with 반말 (informal non-honorific) speech style in present tense. Of course, you can use it with past tense and future tense.

How To Use

A: 어제 깜빡 잠들었어요
I fell asleep without noticing
B: 괜찮아요
It’s okay

A: 잠들었어요?
Is he sleeping?
B: 네 이제 막 잠들었어요
Yes he just fell asleep

A: 잠들 거 같아요
I think I’m falling asleep
B: 제가 눈꺼풀 계속 잡고 있을게요
Then I’ll keep holding your eyelids open