¿estás listo para ir a la cama?
In Spanish, "are you ready for bed?" is expressed as ¿estás listo para ir a la cama?
This phrase is used to ask if someone has finished their preparations to go to sleep. You can choose between different verbs depending on whether you want to emphasize the physical act of going to bed using ir a la cama, the act of lying down using acostarse or the act of sleeping itself using dormir.
Which one should you use?
While ir a la cama focuses on the physical act of going to bed, using dormir focuses on the act of sleeping itself. You might also use the reflexive verb acostarse as a common alternative to ir a la cama.
How does it change in a sentence?
The adjective must agree with the gender of the person you are addressing. If you are speaking to a woman, change the adjective from listo to lista. To ask a group of people if they are ready for bed, use the plural form ¿están listos para ir a la cama?
Did you know?
- The word listo can mean both 'ready' and 'clever'. Depending on the context, telling someone they are muy listo might be a compliment on their intelligence rather than their preparedness.
- If you use the reflexive verb acostarse instead of ir a la cama, you are using a form based on the word costado, meaning 'side', literally describing the act of putting oneself on one's side.
- The phrase's verb ir is a linguistic puzzle called a suppletive verb, meaning it steals forms from other words. For example, the word for 'I went' fui actually comes from the Latin word for 'to be' rather than 'to go'.
Examples in context
- ¿Estás listo/a para irte a la cama?Are you ready to go to bed?
- ¿Estás listo para ir a la cama?Are you ready for bed?
- Hijo, ¿estás listo para ir a la cama?Son, are you ready for bed?
- Ya es tarde, ¿estás listo para ir a la cama?It is late already, are you ready for bed?
