/doɾˈmiɾ ˈkomo un ˈtɾonko/ lit. ‘sleep like a log’
Spanish idiom, everyday. To sleep very deeply and soundly, without waking up.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Spanish speaker.
How do people use Dormir como un tronco
?
Everyday Spanish that anyone can use, at home or at work. It’s almost always about sleep that already happened: “dormí como un tronco” (I slept like a log), “anoche Tom durmió como un tronco”. “Como un tronco” also works on its own after “estar” or “quedarse”: “me quedé como un tronco” means you went out like a light.
Also said estar como un tronco, quedarse como un tronco
Dormir como un tronco
in real sentences
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Dormí como un tronco.
I slept like a log.
Tatoeba, sentence by enteka, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Anoche Tom durmió como un tronco.
Tom slept like a log last night.
Tatoeba, sentence by Shishir, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Dormir como un tronco
come from?
No one has recorded where it started, and the picture explains itself: a tree trunk lies there and doesn’t move. Spanish Wiktionary quotes “está como un tronco” (he’s out cold) from Manuel Juan Diana’s play El destino, printed in Madrid in 1856, and “dormirás como un tronco” from a 1916 novel. English has the same image in “sleep like a log”.
Mistakes learners make with Dormir como un tronco
English speakers tend to reach for “leño” because a log on the fire is a “leño”. Spanish uses “tronco”, the trunk of a tree, so “dormir como un leño” isn’t the set phrase.
Other Spanish idioms like Dormir como un tronco
Spot a mistake in Dormir como un tronco
?
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