To fall asleep means to start sleeping. It describes the moment you drift off, including by accident: on the sofa, on a train, in a boring lecture.
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fall asleep (fell, fallen); fall asleep during/in front of + noun; be asleep
- I was so tired after the flight that I fell asleep during the taxi ride.
- My son can't fall asleep without his favourite toy next to him.
What changed
First versionI was so tired that I felt asleep on the sofa.
RevisionI was so tired that I fell asleep on the sofa.
Felt is the past of feel. The past of fall is fell: fall, fell, fallen. The two words look and sound alike, so they are easy to mix up. Only one letter was corrected.
Go to bed means to get into bed, and you might fall asleep much later: I went to bed at ten but fell asleep at one. Be asleep means already sleeping: Don't call now, she's asleep.
Your turn
Last night I went to bed at ten, but I didn't ___ until two.
Show the answer
fall asleep — The speaker went to bed at ten, so the problem was getting to sleep: didn't fall asleep until two. Go to bed contradicts the start of the sentence: there is no reason to go to bed a second time at two in the morning.
Write about the last time you fell asleep somewhere you didn't plan to. Say where it was and why it happened.
Last Sunday I fell asleep on the train home because I had been up since five for an early flight.
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