Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <grammaticality>
Title: Is it incorrect to say "I slept at six" in English?
Question: I know there are many sentences like  I went to sleep at six  and  I slept at six , but I want to know why it is incorrect to say "I slept at six" in English.

Answers:
sents: text: In my English, at least, sleep can be specified with a period or length of time, but not a point in time .
text: (If you supply a point in time, it's intelligible, but doesn't sound natural.)
text: So I could say things like I slept from nine until seven.
text: I slept until noon.
text: I slept for thirteen hours.
text: But if I want to tell you what I was doing at a precise time, I need to say something like
text: I was asleep when the fire alarm sounded.
text: Or I could tell you about the point when I went from waking to sleeping:
text: I went to sleep around midnight.
text: I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/8399/user8399
score: 8
sents: text: It's not incorrect.
text: It's a perfectly valid sentence construction which is commonly used.
text: I slept at six.
text: I got up at six.
text: I ate at six.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/18254/Dog Lover
score: 7
sents: text: In general, the other answers do a fair job of explaining why it's at least weird to use "I slept at [time]" to describe the time you began sleeping.
text: But there are plenty of occasions when it works well enough.
text: A short nap could be described as "I slept at noon.
text: " This works especially when you're describing a sequence of events, e.g. "I slept at noon, then had lunch at 1.
text: "
text: Similarly, I wouldn't be confused if someone summed up their evening like this: "I jogged at 6, ate dinner at 7, and slept at 9.
text: "
text: (i.e. they went to bed at 9)
text: If I asked someone "When did you go to bed?
text: " I'd understand what they meant if their response was "I slept at 10."
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/8718/talrnu
score: 4
sents: text: However (thanks Dog Lover [Love the handle, BTW]), the way that sentence is constructed is a bit unexpected.
text: Consider, "I went to bed at six".
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/4686/Jolenealaska
score: 2
sents: text: "I slept" means "I spent a period of time asleep."
text: "I slept at 6" doesn't make sense because it's saying "I spent a period of time asleep at a particular moment in time."
text: In contrast, "I woke" means "I changed from the sleeping state to the waking state"
text: and it's perfectly reasonable to do that at a specific time.
text: Having said that, "I ate at six" is fine, even though it seems to mean "I spent a period of time eating at a specific time.
text: " It would, instead, be interpreted as "I began eating at six", which is again a change of state at a specific time.
text: This is somewhat inconsistent but that's how language is: all I can offer is that "to sleep" isn't used to mean "to begin sleeping" even though it would be logical if it was.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/4468/David Richerby
score: 2
sents: text: "I slept at six" is not incorrect.
text: It is a bit unusual, and feels a bit clumsy, and it means something different than "I went to sleep at six".
text: That happens quite often, some sentence is not incorrect as a sentence, but has a different meaning than you think it has.
text: "I went to sleep at six":
text: I was awake at 5:59, but asleep at 6:00.
text: "I slept at six"
text: : I went to sleep some time before 6:00 and woke up some time after 6:00, so at the exact time I was asleep.
text: Example usage: "I called you on the phone
text: but you didn't answer".
text: "When did you call?"
text: "I called at six.
text: What were you doing that kept you from answering?"
text: "I slept at six,
text: that's why I didn't answer".
text: Usually you would say "I was asleep" instead of
text: "I slept".
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/6338/gnasher729
score: 1
sents: text: It's a little ambiguous as it's unclear whether you mean you started sleeping at six, or slept through six, though it would probably become clear from the context or question.
text: I world use "
text: I went to sleep at 6" or "I was still asleep at 6" to make it clearer.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/15734/Rikki
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
Although valid and not incorrect, it's a little ambiguous as it's unclear whether you mean you started sleeping at six, or slept through six. However, it would probably become clear from the context or question.  It is a bit unusual, and feels a bit clumsy, and it means something different than "I went to sleep at six".
While not incorrect, this is ambiguous and unusual. Normally the constrution refers to a period, not a point in time.