一、asleep的用法

1. 睡着; 睡熟 (not awake; sleeping)

(1) 作表语。例如：

The baby was sound asleep (= sleeping deeply) upstairs.  婴儿在楼上睡得很香。

I waited until they were all fast asleep (= sleeping deeply). 我一直等到他们睡熟。

(2) 作宾语补足语。例如：

The police found him asleep in a garage.警察发现他在车库里睡着了。

(3) 作状语。例如：

Half asleep, he felt the horse's nose push against his face.睡意朦胧中,他觉得马的鼻子挨在他的脸上推动。

2. (指四肢)麻木；发麻,；麻痹 ((of limbs) having no feeling; numb)

作表语 。例如：

When I woke my left arm was asleep. 我醒来时我的左臂麻木了。

二、asleep的搭配

1. be / lie / seem asleep。例如：

The baby lay peacefully asleep in its pram. 婴儿躺在婴儿车安静地睡着了。

2. drop / fall asleep。例如：

I fell asleep almost immediately. 我几乎立刻就睡着了。

3. remain / stay asleep。例如：

Only he has remained asleep, while you have awakened; and who knows which of you is the most fortunate? 只是他仍睡着,而您却已醒来了，谁知道你们之中哪一个更幸福呢?

4. deeply / fast / heavily / sound asleep。例如：

The children were all sound asleep in bed. 孩子们都在床上熟睡了。

5. almost / half / nearly asleep。例如：

She dragged herself out of bed, still half asleep. 她挣扎着起了床，犹自睡眼惺松。

6. peacefully / still asleep。例如：

“Has he woken up yet?” “No, he's still asleep.” “他醒了吗?”“没有,他还在睡。”

 

三、辨析：sleepy, asleep，sleeping

1. sleepy

sleepy 最常用词，指人昏昏欲睡，或沉睡时的寂静状态。既可作表语，又可作定语。作表语时，作“困倦”、“想睡觉”解，用作定语时， 作“贪睡”、“寂静的”解。例如：

The children fell sleepy; put them to bed. 孩子们困了，把他们放到床上睡吧。

John is a sleepy head. 约翰是个贪睡的人。

Here are the outskirts/suburbs of Kowloon. Do you like this sleepy valley？这里是九龙的郊区。你喜欢这寂静的山谷吗？

2. asleep

asleep是表语形容词，在句中放在verb “to be”之后；它不能放在名词之前，例如我们不可以说：Look at the asleep baby，应把 asleep 改为 sleeping。例如：

She was fast asleep；I couldn't wake her up． 她睡得很熟，我喊不醒她。

The old man has fallen asleep. 那个老人睡着了。

注意，be asleep 是指“睡着”的状态，如果表示“入睡”的意味，就要用fall asleep。上面两个例句反映了这个区别(www.yygrammar.com)。

3. sleeping

sleeping是定语形容词，它放在它所修饰的名词之前。例如：

Who is that sleeping man？ 那个在睡觉的人是谁？

Keep an eye on the sleeping baby． 照看好那个在睡觉的婴孩。

如果 sleeping 放在verb “to be”之后，例如 He is sleeping. 此处的 sleeping 不是形容词，而是动词，is sleeping 是现在进行时。