Comprender Conjugation 101: Conjugate Comprender In Spanish

On top of being a basic verb, comprender conjugation patterns can help you practice the -ER regular conjugation. So, in this guide, we’ll learn how to conjugate comprender in the most common Spanish tenses. Here is what we’ll cover:

• Comprender Overview
• Indicative Tenses of Comprender 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 Comprender Conjugations 
  • Present Subjunctive tense
  • Present Perfect Subjunctive tense
  • Imperfect Subjunctive tense
  • Past Perfect Subjunctive tense
• Imperative (Commands) of Comprender Conjugations
  • Affirmative Commands
  • Negative Commands
• Uses & Examples
• Download Comprender Conjugation Tables & Uses Cheat sheets
• Comprender Conjugation Practice Quiz

The tenses we cover in this guide are the only ones you need to know. While there are more conjugation tenses, they are not used in contemporary Spanish and therefore are obsolete.

Overview of Comprender

Indicative Conjugations of Comprender

Present tense

The present tense conjugations of comprender are used to talk about the things people currently understand. For example: Yo no comprendo el pretérito muy bien.

Preterite tense

Comprender preterite conjugations refer to the things someone understood. This past tense can use time markers that point to a specific moment in the past. ¿Comprendieron lo que les dije?

Imperfect tense

Use comprender past imperfect forms to talk about things you understood or didn’t understand for a long period of time in the past. For instance: Sara no comprendía las matemáticas.

Near future

The Spanish immediate future of ‘comprender’ is formed with ir (present tense) + a + comprender and can be translated as “going to understand”. Use these conjugations to express that someone is going to understand something soon in the future. Algún día vas a comprender. 

Future simple tense

Conjugate comprender to the future tense to say that someone will understand something at some point in the future. For example: Samantha está enojada, pero ya comprenderá.

Conditional tense

The conditional conjugations of ‘comprender’ refers to things or situations that someone would understand. For example: Creí que tú comprenderías.

Present perfect tense

Haber in the present tense + comprendido (past participle) is the formula to conjugate the Spanish present perfect tense. These ‘comprender’ conjugations are used to talk about the things people have or haven’t understood. No has comprendido lo que quiero decir. 

Past perfect

Conjugate comprender to the Spanish past perfect tense to express that someone had or hadn’t understood something before some other reference point in the past. Creí que ya habían comprendido. To form the past perfect, use the imperfect form of ‘haber’ and the past participle form of ‘comprender’.

Future perfect

Comprender to the future perfect tense expresses that someone will have understood something by or before a certain time in the future. These conjugations are also used to express that a person might have understood something. For instance: En unas horas, habré comprendido lo que me dijiste.

Conditional perfect

The conditional perfect conjugations of comprender are used to convey that someone would have understood something as long as a past condition had been met. For instance: Si me hubieran puesto atención, habrían comprendido lo que dije. 

Progressive tenses

The progressive tenses of comprender convey that someone is understanding something at the moment of speaking. Or, in the case of past tenses (preterite and imperfect), to communicate that a past action was in progress when someone understood something.

For instance: Apenas estaba comprendiendo y me confundiste.

Comprender Subjunctive Conjugations

The Spanish subjunctive mood is used to talk about wishes, doubts, requests, or hypothetical situations. Below are the comprender conjugation charts for the subjunctive tenses.

Present subjunctive

Comprender subjunctive conjugations are regular. You can use these forms to request or hope that someone understands something. For instance: Espero que me comprendas.

Present perfect subjunctive

Haber in the present subjunctive + comprendido is the formula to build the present perfect subjunctive of ‘comprender’. When using this tense, ‘comprender’ expresses doubt about someone understanding something. No creo que los chicos hayan comprendido.

Imperfect subjunctive

The imperfect subjunctive conjugations of ‘comprender’ refer to past suggestions, requests, wishes or expectations you had about someone understanding something. Esperaba que ustedes me comprendieran. 

The imperfect subjunctive has two conjugation models depending on which type of Spanish you’re using:

Latin American Spanish version

Note: In Latin American Spanish, vosotros is not used. As a result, the conjugation chart above doesn’t contain this pronoun.

Castilian Spanish version

Past perfect subjunctive

In the past perfect subjunctive, comprender expresses that someone would have understood something if a past circumstance was met. Additionally, these conjugations also refer to regrets or hypothetical results if someone had understood something. 

For example: Si hubieras comprendido, no habríamos tenido tantos problemas. 

Comprender Imperative Conjugations

The Spanish imperative mood are the conjugations you must use to give orders.

Affirmative commands

To order people to understand something, use the affirmative commands of ‘comprender’. For instance: Señora, comprenda que no la puedo ayudar.

Negative commands

The negative imperative of ‘comprender’ can be used to order people to not understand something. However, sentences with these conjugations are not as common because you cannot command people’s understanding.

Meanings of Comprender & Examples

Since you now know how to conjugate comprender in Spanish, here are some examples of how to use this verb. 

[Comprender conjugated] + [complement]

¿Comprenden lo que quiero decir?
Do you guys understand what I mean?

Sally nunca comprendió tus razones. 
Sally never understood your reasons. 

When talking about understanding a person, you can combine ‘comprender’ with direct object pronouns:

Comprendéme, tengo mucho trabajo.
Understand me, I have a lot of work. 

Take Note: Comprender is a slightly more formal synonym of the verb entender. 

Download Comprender Conjugation Tables & Uses Cheat sheets

Click the button below to download the cheat sheets PDF I’ve assembled with all of the comprender conjugation charts, meanings, and uses so you can study them at your own pace.

Download Conjugations PDF

Practice Quiz: Comprender Conjugation

The best way to commit all the tense conjugations to memory for a verb you’ve just learned is to practice and use them. That’s why I’ve created a comprender conjugation practice quiz.