dormir at C2 — literary & formal
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Still water, dormant accounts and clear consciences.
Dormir in formal French
Written French turns the present participle into an adjective. « Une eau dormante » is stagnant water, and finance borrowed the image: « un compte dormant », « des avoirs dormants » — accounts nobody has touched for years, which the law now obliges banks to trace. The register is technical and neutral; nothing poetic survives except the picture itself.
Literature keeps « dormir du sommeil du juste » : the untroubled sleep of a clear conscience, usually said with irony about someone who ought to be worrying. Journalism prefers the causative « endormir » — « endormir la vigilance », « endormir la méfiance » — to lull a reader or a parliament into lowering its guard. Medicine adds « endormissement », the clinical noun.
💡 Focus at this level: Formal — dormir du sommeil du juste, comptes dormants, endormir la vigilance
👨🏫 How to use « dormir » at this level
1. « Dormir du sommeil du juste » = to sleep the sleep of the just. Literary.
2. « Comptes dormants » = dormant accounts. Banking and law.
3. « Endormir la vigilance » = to lull suspicion. Press and essays.
🔊 Example sentences
✍️ Practice
What is « un compte dormant » in a bank’s annual report?
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A dormant account, untouched for years — dormant is the participle of dormir used as an adjective.
Which is journalistic: « endormir la vigilance » or « faire dormir les gens » ?
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« Endormir la vigilance » — the fixed press phrase for getting someone to lower their guard.
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