According to statistics, sleep problems are the scourge of half of humanity. There are many helpful tips on how to avoid them. For example, ventilate the room at night, do not drink alcohol before bed, do not read or use electronic devices, because light suppresses the sleep hormone melatonin.
And try not to rack your brains over tricky tasks. Whether you fell asleep or fell asleep, it doesn't matter at all. Just to get up rested at the alarm.
Scientists' opinion
The section of the science of language that studies words and morphemes (significant parts of words) is called morphology, and the specialists in it are linguists-morphologists. In their authoritative opinion, these two concepts, "fell asleep" and "fell asleep", are unambiguous. The difference, however, exists. And it is enclosed in almost imperceptible shades of meanings.
There are prefixes in both words. Both "y-" and "for-" mean the same thing: the completion of an action.
Sleep into sleep -means to sleep. That is, the action is complete, it is exhausted. The meaning of the word is emphasized on the fact that the previously started process of falling asleep has ended.
At the same time, falling asleep is indicated by the word "fall asleep." But a man who has fallen asleep is one who has already plunged deeply into the realm of Morpheus. The dream itself is already going on, and not just “diving” into it, as in the first case.
These shades are very, very thin. We do not think at all how it is right to fall asleep or fall asleep when we use one of these two words. And both are correct.
What is the difference between eternal and non-eternal sleep
So we have synonyms. However, these words have many meanings. And synonymy does not exist in every meaning. Here are the three cases where "fall asleep" and "fall asleep" are identical:
- The dog fell asleep by the stove. The cat fell asleep on the pillow (falling into sleep).
- The forest fell asleep under a snow cover. The big city fell asleep (calm, desertion).
- The fish is already asleep. The pike thrown ashore quickly fell asleep (stop breathing and die, used only in the 3rd person and exclusively about fish).
However, the second verb has a couple more meanings:
- Pain will not fall asleep soon (about feelings: weakening, dulling).
- Soldiers who fell asleep on the battlefield (die).
And in such cases, these words are not interchangeable. For example, hatred cannot fall asleep, and one cannot say “fell asleep in a hospital bed” (in the sense that he ended his life). The exception is sustainablecombination fall asleep / fall asleep forever.
The first verb has a pair of imperfect form - fall asleep. But the word "fall" does not exist.
Where it is thin, there it breaks
There are duplicate words that testify to the redundancy of the language system. One of the identical concepts is erased from the dictionary over time. But the process is slow.
In our language, these two synonyms will exist side by side for a long time. So fell asleep or fell asleep - in most cases it does not matter. Moreover, scientists predict the disappearance of one of them over time. Just what, I wonder?
