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Comprar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to buy”.
Below are all of the conjugations for comprar in Spanish, in all three moods (indicative/indicativo, subjunctive/subjunctivo and imperative/imperativo) and all of the tenses, for each pronoun.
The vosotros pronoun is mainly used in mainland Spain, and is the informal second-person plural – it could be considered the Spanish version of “y’all”. It is rarely found in Latin America, where ustedes is used instead.
The vos form is used instead of tú in some Spanish speaking countries of South America, especially the Southern Cone (e.g. Argentina and Uruguay) and has a different conjugation.
| English Infinitive | to buy |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | comprar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está comprando) and past continuous (estaba comprando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. buying).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he comprado and hubiera comprado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have bought).
| Gerundio / Gerund | comprando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | comprado |
The basic form of speech, el indicativo is used for making statements, talking about facts, events and things that are certain and objective.
The present tense is as it sounds – it’s for talking about things that are currently going on, which are habitual, or which generally exist. In English, this would be “I buy” or “they buy”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | compro |
| Tú | compras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | compra |
| Nosotros / as | compramos |
| Vosotros / as | compráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | compran |
| Vos | comprás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I bought” or “she bought” in English.
In Spanish, there are two past tenses where just one is used in English; the pretérite infefinido is typically used to refer to a concrete, specific moment in time.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | compré | I bought |
| Tú | compraste | You bought |
| Él / Ella / Usted | compró | He / she / you bought |
| Nosotros / as | compramos | We bought |
| Vosotros / as | comprasteis | You bought |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | compraron | They / you bought |
| Vos | compraste | You bought |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was buying” or “she was buying” in English, and is typically used to describe things and set a scene, talk about events without a specific timeframe, or talk about habitual events or states in the past.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | compraba | I was buying |
| Tú | comprabas | You were buying |
| Él / Ella / Usted | compraba | He was / she was / you were buying |
| Nosotros / as | comprábamos | We were buying |
| Vosotros / as | comprabais | You were buying |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | compraban | They / you were buying |
| Vos | comprabas | You were buying |
The perfect tense is for talking about things which happened in the past but are still related to the present or continue into the present.
In English, these use the auxiliary verbs ‘have’ and ‘has’ – i.e. “I have bought” and “she has bought”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he comprado | I have bought |
| Tú | has comprado | You have bought |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha comprado | He has / she has / you have bought |
| Nosotros / as | hemos comprado | We have bought |
| Vosotros / as | habéis comprado | You have bought |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han comprado | They / you have bought |
| Vos | has comprado | You have bought |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would buy” or “she would buy”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | compraría | I would buy |
| Tú | comprarías | You would buy |
| Él / Ella / Usted | compraría | He / she / you would buy |
| Nosotros / as | compraríamos | We would buy |
| Vosotros / as | compraríais | You would buy |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comprarían | They / you would buy |
| Vos | comprarías | You would buy |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will buy” or “they will buy”.
It is more commonly used for making a hypothesis about the present. To talk about the future, Spanish speakers frequently use “ir + a + infinivo”, e.g. “van a comprar” means “They are going to buy”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | compraré | I will buy |
| Tú | comprarás | You will buy |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comprará | He / she / you will buy |
| Nosotros / as | compraremos | We will buy |
| Vosotros / as | compraréis | You will buy |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comprarán | They / you will buy |
| Vos | comprarás | You will buy |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | compre |
| Tú | compres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | compre |
| Nosotros / as | compremos |
| Vosotros / as | compréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | compren |
| Vos | compres |
There are two ways to form the imperfect subjunctive.
The first option sees verbs ending in -era (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ara (for -ar verbs), while the second sees verbs ending in -ese (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ase (for -ar verbs).
There is no difference between these two forms, and Spanish speakers use them interchangeably.
| Pronoun | Spanish era/ara | Spanish ese/ase |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | comprara | comprase |
| Tú | compraras | comprase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comprara | comprase |
| Nosotros / as | compráramos | comprásemos |
| Vosotros / as | comprarais | compraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | compraran | comprasen |
| Vos | compraras | comprase |
The future subjunctive is no longer used in modern-day Spanish, apart from in literary and legal contexts, and there is no need to learn it.
It is formed the same as the past/imperfect subjunctive, but with -e endings instead of -a endings.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | comprare |
| Tú | comprares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comprare |
| Nosotros / as | compráremos |
| Vosotros / as | comprareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | compraren |
| Vos | comprares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “buy!” and “don’t buy!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | compra | no compres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | compre | no compre |
| Nosotros / as | compremos | no compremos |
| Vosotros / as | comprad | no compréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | compren | no compren |
| Vos | comprá | no compres |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya comprado |
| Tú | hayas comprado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya comprado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos comprado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis comprado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan comprado |
| Vos | hayas comprado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera comprado / hubiese comprado |
| Tú | hubieras comprado / hubieses comprado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera comprado / hubiese comprado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos comprado / hubiésemos comprado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais comprado / hubieseis comprado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran comprado / hubiesen comprado |
| Vos | hubieras comprado / hubieses comprado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere comprado |
| Tú | hubieres comprado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere comprado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos comprado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis comprado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren comprado |
| Vos | hubieres comprado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté comprando |
| Tú | estés comprando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté comprando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos comprando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis comprando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén comprando |
| Vos | estés comprando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera comprando / estuviese comprando |
| Tú | estuvieras comprando / estuvieses comprando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera comprando / estuviese comprando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos comprando / estuviésamos comprando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais comprando / estuvieseis comprando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera comprando / estuviese comprando |
| Vos | estuvieras comprando / estuvieses comprando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere comprando |
| Tú | estuvieres comprando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere comprando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos comprando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis comprando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere comprando |
| Vos | estuvieres comprando |
Voseo is the practice of using ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’ as the second-person singular pronoun, and is common throughout much of South America.
There are various versions of ‘voseo’ used throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The conjugations for the most common type – used throughout Argentina, parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguya and Uruguay are below.
The present indicative (presente de indicativo) and affirmative imperative (imperativo) have different conjugations from the tú form, while all other tenses generally use the tú form.
| Tense | Vos Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Present Indicative Presente de Indicativo | Vos comprás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos compraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos comprabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos comprarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos comprarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos compres |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos compraras / Vos comprase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos comprá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no compres |