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Comprender is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to understand”.
Below are all of the conjugations for comprender 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 understand |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | comprender |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está comprendiendo) and past continuous (estaba comprendiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. understanding).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he comprendido and hubiera comprendido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have understood).
| Gerundio / Gerund | comprendiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | comprendido |
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 understand” or “they understand”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | comprendo |
| Tú | comprendes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comprende |
| Nosotros / as | comprendemos |
| Vosotros / as | comprendéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comprenden |
| Vos | comprendés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I understood” or “she understood” 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 | comprendí | I understood |
| Tú | comprendiste | You understood |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comprendió | He / she / you understood |
| Nosotros / as | comprendimos | We understood |
| Vosotros / as | comprendisteis | You understood |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comprendieron | They / you understood |
| Vos | comprendiste | You understood |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was understanding” or “she was understanding” 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 | comprendía | I was understanding |
| Tú | comprendías | You were understanding |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comprendía | He was / she was / you were understanding |
| Nosotros / as | comprendíamos | We were understanding |
| Vosotros / as | comprendíais | You were understanding |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comprendían | They / you were understanding |
| Vos | comprendías | You were understanding |
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 understood” and “she has understood”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he comprendido | I have understood |
| Tú | has comprendido | You have understood |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha comprendido | He has / she has / you have understood |
| Nosotros / as | hemos comprendido | We have understood |
| Vosotros / as | habéis comprendido | You have understood |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han comprendido | They / you have understood |
| Vos | has comprendido | You have understood |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would understand” or “she would understand”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | comprendería | I would understand |
| Tú | comprenderías | You would understand |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comprendería | He / she / you would understand |
| Nosotros / as | comprenderíamos | We would understand |
| Vosotros / as | comprenderíais | You would understand |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comprenderían | They / you would understand |
| Vos | comprenderías | You would understand |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will understand” or “they will understand”.
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 comprender” means “They are going to understand”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | comprenderé | I will understand |
| Tú | comprenderás | You will understand |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comprenderá | He / she / you will understand |
| Nosotros / as | comprenderemos | We will understand |
| Vosotros / as | comprenderéis | You will understand |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comprenderán | They / you will understand |
| Vos | comprenderás | You will understand |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | comprenda |
| Tú | comprendas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comprenda |
| Nosotros / as | comprendamos |
| Vosotros / as | comprendáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comprendan |
| Vos | comprendas |
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 | comprendiera | comprendiese |
| Tú | comprendieras | comprendiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comprendiera | comprendiese |
| Nosotros / as | comprendiéramos | comprendiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | comprendierais | comprendieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comprendieran | comprendiesen |
| Vos | comprendieras | comprendiese |
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 | comprendiere |
| Tú | comprendieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comprendiere |
| Nosotros / as | comprendiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | comprendiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comprendieren |
| Vos | comprendieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “understand!” and “don’t understand!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | comprende | no comprendas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | comprenda | no comprenda |
| Nosotros / as | comprendamos | no comprendamos |
| Vosotros / as | comprended | no comprendáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | comprendan | no comprendan |
| Vos | comprendé | no comprendas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya comprendido |
| Tú | hayas comprendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya comprendido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos comprendido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis comprendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan comprendido |
| Vos | hayas comprendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera comprendido / hubiese comprendido |
| Tú | hubieras comprendido / hubieses comprendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera comprendido / hubiese comprendido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos comprendido / hubiésemos comprendido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais comprendido / hubieseis comprendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran comprendido / hubiesen comprendido |
| Vos | hubieras comprendido / hubieses comprendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere comprendido |
| Tú | hubieres comprendido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere comprendido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos comprendido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis comprendido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren comprendido |
| Vos | hubieres comprendido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté comprendiendo |
| Tú | estés comprendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté comprendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos comprendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis comprendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén comprendiendo |
| Vos | estés comprendiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera comprendiendo / estuviese comprendiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras comprendiendo / estuvieses comprendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera comprendiendo / estuviese comprendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos comprendiendo / estuviésamos comprendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais comprendiendo / estuvieseis comprendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera comprendiendo / estuviese comprendiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras comprendiendo / estuvieses comprendiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere comprendiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres comprendiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere comprendiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos comprendiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis comprendiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere comprendiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres comprendiendo |
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 comprendés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos comprendiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos comprendías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos comprenderías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos comprenderás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos comprendas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos comprendieras / Vos comprendiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos comprendé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no comprendas |
