Comer Conjugation 101: Conjugate Comer In Spanish

As a regular verb, comer conjugation patterns can help you practice and learn how to conjugate -ER verbs in Spanish. Since this is also a basic verb for daily conversations, in this guide, we’ll go over: 

• Comer Overview
• Indicative Tenses of Comer Conjugations
  • Present tense
  • Preterite tense
  • Imperfect tense
  • Near Future tense
  • Future tense
  • Conditional tense
  • Present Perfect tense
  • Past Perfect tense
  • Future Perfect tense
  • Conditional Perfect tense
  • Progressive tenses
• Subjunctive Tenses of Comer Conjugations
  • Present Subjunctive tense
  • Present Perfect Subjunctive tense
  • Imperfect Subjunctive tense
  • Past Perfect Subjunctive tense
• Imperative (Commands) of Comer Conjugations
  • Affirmative Commands
  • Negative Commands
• Uses & Examples
• Download Comer Conjugation Tables & Uses Cheat sheets
• Comer Conjugation Practice Quiz

Overview of Comer

Indicative Conjugations of Comer

Present tense

Comer’s conjugation in the present tense is used to talk about what or when people habitually eat. For example: Yo no como mariscos.

Preterite tense

Comer preterite conjugations are regular. Use the preterite tense to express that a person ate something at a specific moment in the past. For instance: ¿Qué comieron ayer? 

Imperfect tense

Use comer imperfect conjugations to talk about what or when people used to eat something. You can include adverbs of manner to describe how someone ate. For example: Cuando era niño, mi hermano comía muy mal. 

Near future

The Spanish near or immediate future tense expresses that someone will eat at some point soon in the future. To form this tense, use ir in the present tense + a + comer. Here is an example: Hoy vamos a comer pollo.

Future simple tense

Conjugate this verb to the future simple tense to express that a person will eat at some time in the future. For instance: ¿Qué comeremos en Navidad?

Conditional tense

The conditional indicative forms of this verb convey that a person would eat. If applicable to your statement, you can use si clauses to introduce the conditions that need to be fulfilled for this to happen. Nunca comería en ese lugar otra vez. 

Present perfect tense

Use haber present conjugations + the past participle of ‘comer’ to conjugate to the present perfect. These comer conjugations allow you to talk about what people have eaten. For example: ¿Qué es lo más extraño que han comido?

Past perfect

To say that someone had or hadn’t eaten something, conjugate this verb to the past perfect tense in Spanish. The formula to create this tense is haber in imperfect form + comido (past participle). Check this example: Gracias, no habíamos comido nada en todo el día. 

Future perfect

When conjugated to the future perfect tense, comer conveys that a person will have eaten by or before a moment in the future. For instance: No sé qué habrás comido, pero no es lo que yo comí. 

Conditional perfect

Conjugate comer to the conditional perfect tense to say that someone would have eaten something. For example: Habría comido más si no hubiera estado tan llena. 

Progressive tenses

In Spanish, the progressive tenses are formed with the conjugations of estar + present participle (comiendo for this verb). Use these comer conjugations to express that someone is eating at the moment of speaking. ¿Qué necesitas? Estamos comiendo. 

Comer Subjunctive Conjugations

In Spanish, we must use the subjunctive mood to talk about a person’s demands, suggestions, desires, suggestions, uncertainty, or hypothetical outcomes. In the following sections, we’ll review comer conjugation charts for the most important subjunctive tenses. 

Present subjunctive

Comer’s present subjunctive conjugations are applied to suggest, demand, or hope that someone eats something or in a certain way. Quiero que se coman toda la ensalada. 

Present perfect subjunctive

Haber’s present subjunctive forms + comido is how you form the present perfect subjunctive in Spanish. Use these comer conjugations to express hopes or uncertainty about whether someone has eaten something. No creo que mi hermano se haya comido tu hamburguesa. 

Imperfect subjunctive

The imperfect subjunctive conjugations of comer allow you to talk about past suggestions, expectations, advice, or demands related to someone eating. For instance: El doctor me sugirió que comiera menos azúcar. 

Castilian and Latin American Spanish use different endings for the imperfect subjunctive: 

Latin American Spanish version

Note: Since the subject pronoun vosotros is not used in Latin American Spanish, the comer conjugation for this pronoun has not been included in the previous conjugation chart.

Castilian Spanish version

Past perfect subjunctive

Use comer’s past perfect subjunctive conjugations to say that someone would have eaten if a past circumstance had taken place. These forms can also be used to express regret for eating something or not. Si no hubiera estado aquí, ¿qué hubieran comido?

Comer Imperative Conjugations

To give commands to someone in Spanish, use the imperative mood.

Affirmative commands

If you need to order someone to eat, you must conjugate comer to the Spanish affirmative imperative. Cómete todas tus verduras. 

Negative commands

To order someone not to eat, use the negative command conjugations. Ya no comas más papas. 

Meanings of Comer & Examples

Now that we’ve reviewed how to conjugate comer in Spanish, we’re about to learn how to use this verb correctly. Comer is used to talking about eating. However, we use pronouns in Spanish to add some nuances to this meaning: 

[Comer conjugated] + [conjugated]

¿Era tuyo? Yo me lo comí. 
Was it yours? I ate it. 

Este cajero se come las tarjetas. 
This ATM eats up the cards.

No eran ni las 2 y ya habíamos comido. 
It wasn’t even 2, and we had already eaten. 

Take Note: In its non-reflexive form, comer is only used to talk about eating habits or the time someone eats. However, we use pronominal pronouns to express that someone eats something entirely or to emphasize the amount of items a person eats. In this case, you can also add direct object pronouns to replace the thing someone ate (like example #1).

Download Comer Conjugation Charts & Uses Cheat sheet

Comer is one of the most common -ER verbs used in daily conversations, so it’s a key verb for learning Spanish. I’ve created a cheat sheet PDF containing all the comer conjugation charts as well as its definition and example sentences for you to review when you need to.

Download Conjugations PDF

Practice Quiz: Comer Conjugation

Now that you’ve learned how to conjugate this regular -ER verb, the next step is to take the comer conjugation practice quiz. You can choose any combination of moods and tenses to include in the quiz, from beginner to advanced levels.

Take Quiz