“Comer” Conjugation: All You Need to Keep Full in Spanish

We all know eating is not only essential to survive, but one of the greatest pleasures in life. This is why we have chosen to focus on the verb comer (to eat) in this article, so you can cover your basic needs in Spanish as well. Lucky for you, the verb comer is regular, so it shouldn’t give you as much trouble as some of our previous conjugations. We’ll go over the comer conjugation starting from the basics and leading up to some pro-tips. There will be some examples as usual, as well as some useful and fun phrases, not to mention some suggestions of food you should definitely try.

Are you ready to try delicious new meals?

Verbals of comer: infinitive, gerund and participle

Now that you have an idea of what kind of verb comer is, we’ll move onto its conjugation. We’ll start by looking at its verbals: the infinitive, the gerund and the participle. Verbals can get tricky as they actually function as nouns, adjectives and adverbs and not as actual verbs. But worry not! After we look at some examples, you’ll find that this part of the comer conjugation doesn’t really taste so sour.

Infinitive

Comer (to eat)

• Vamos a comer todos juntos el domingo. (We’ll all eat together on Sunday.)

Gerund

Comiendo (eating)

• Estaba comiendo un helado y se me cayó. (I was eating an ice cream cone and I dropped it.)

Participle

Comido (eaten)

• Si hubieses comido todo el almuerzo, ahora no tendrías hambre (If you had eaten all of your lunch, you wouldn’t be hungry now.)

Comer conjugation for all levels

The casual foodie: comer conjugation for beginners

As you might know, there are 10 tenses in the indicative mood in the Spanish language. We’ll get you started with the most common and simplest forms for the comer conjugation: presente (present), pretérito imperfecto (imperfect preterite, a form of the past tense), pretérito perfecto (perfect preterite, another form of the past tense) and futuro (future).

Subject	Present	Imperfect Preterite	Perfect Preterite	Future
Yo (I)	como	comía	comí	comeré
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	comes comés	comías	comiste	comerás
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	come	comía	comió	comerá
Nosotros (We)	comemos	comíamos	comimos	comeremos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	coméis comen	comíais comían	comisteis comieron	comeréis comerán
Ellos (Them)	comen	comían	comieron	comerán

Comer conjugation examples for beginners

• Present: ¡Comen fruta todos los días!. (They eat fruit everyday!)
• Imperfect preterite: Mis abuelos comían platos italianos tradicionales. (My grandparents used to eat traditional Italian dishes)
• Perfect preterite: ¡Estaba tan delicioso que me lo comí todo! (It was so delicious I ate it all!)
• Future: Ya te lo comerás. (You’ll eat it eventually.)

The committed foodie: comer conjugation for intermediate students

Nicely done! You are no longer a lazy eater. Now it’s time to step up your game and focus on the compound tenses of the comer conjugation in the indicative mood.

When it comes to compound tenses in Spanish, mastering the haber conjugation is key. The only form of comer that actually comes into play here is the participle “comido”. To construct compound tenses in Spanish, you need to use the correct form of the verb haber + the past participle of the verb in question (i.e., comido), which is the one that carries the meaning.

In the table below, you’ll find the pretérito perfecto (preterite perfect), pluscuamperfecto (pluperfect) and futuro compuesto (future perfect) tenses for comer, but it might also be useful for you to take a look at our article on the haber conjugation.

Subject	Preterite Perfect	Pluperfect	Future Perfect
Yo (I)	he comido	había comido	habré comido
Tu/Vos (You)	has comido	habías comido	habrás comido
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	ha comido	había comido	habrá comido
Nosotros (We)	hemos comido	habíamos comido	habremos comido
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	habéis comido han comido	habíais comido habían comido	habréis comido habrán comido
Ellos (Them)	han comido	habían comido	habrán comido

Comer conjugation examples for intermediate level

• Preterite perfect: ¿Has comido algo? (Have you eaten anything?)
• Pluperfect: Había comido tres pizzas enteras. (He/She had eaten three whole pizzas.)
• Future perfect: Ya habrán comido. (They will we have eaten by now.)

The connoisseur: comer conjugation for advanced learners

Now, here comes the real challenge: the subjunctive mood. This Spanish mood is quite abstract; it is used to express doubts, emotions, desires, and the unknown. Below, we’ll look at its presente (present), imperfecto (imperfect) and futuro (future) tenses for the comer conjugation.

Subject	Present	Imperfect	Future
Yo (I)	coma	comiera o comiese	comiere
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	comas	comieras o comieses	comieres
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	coma	comiera o comiese	comiere
Nosotros (We)	comamos	comiéramos o comiésemos	comiéremos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	comáis coman	comierais o comieseis	comiereis comieren
Ellos (Them)	coman	comieran o comiesen	comieren

Comer conjugation examples for advanced learners

• Present: ¡No comas eso, está podrido! (Don’t eat that, it’s rotten!)
• Imperfect: Si comieran más verduras, serían más saludables. (If you ate more vegetables, you’d be healthier.)

The subjunctive future is not really used in speech nowadays, and you are more likely to find it in literature or legal contexts. We haven’t added a conjugation example for the comer subjunctive future here, as this verb in that conjugation is very rare, and you are very unlikely to come across it. However, it is good to know it exists and what it looks like.

Extra comer conjugation: conditional tenses and imperative

If you are still hungry for knowledge, here you’ll find some extra tenses of the comer conjugation. We have the condicional simple (simple conditional) and the condicional compuesto (conditional perfect), as well as the imperative, in the table below.

Subject	Simple Conditional	Conditional Perfect	Imperative
Yo (I)	comería	habría comido
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	comerías	habrías comido	come comé
Usted (You, formal) El/Ella (He/She/It)	comería	habría comido	coma
Nosotros (We)	comeríamos	habríamos comido	comamos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	comeríais comerían	habríais comido habrían comido	comed
Ellos (Them)	comerían	habrían comido	coman

Comer conjugation examples in the conditional tenses

• Simple conditional: ¿Comerías un gusano por dinero? (Would you eat a worm for money?)
• Conditional perfect: Si hubiese sabido de este festín, no habría comido antes de venir. (If I had known about this feast, I wouldn’t have eaten before coming.)
• Imperative: ¡Come todo lo que hay en el plato! (Eat the whole plate!)

If you want more details about conditional tenses, you can take a look at this article.

The different meals of the day

We all know there are three main meals in the day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Well, unlike in English, there are verbs that go along with them in Spanish. Let’s take a look at them below:

Desayunar (to have breakfast)

• Esta mañana desayuné café y una tostada. (This morning I had coffee and toast for breakfast.)

Almorzar (to have lunch)

• ¿Qué hay para almorzar hoy? (What’s for lunch today?)

Cenar (to have dinner)

• Hoy cenamos en lo de mis suegros. (We are having dinner at my in-laws today.)

Moreover, in some cultures, it is customary to have a midafternoon snack as dinner takes place between 8 and 11 pm. This is called merienda and the corresponding verb is merendar, which roughly corresponds to having tea or an afternoon snack.

Food from the Hispanic communities

No article about the comer conjugation would be complete without a taste of some of the rich Hispanic culture, so we invite you to enjoy this full meal.

Appetizer: arepas

Arepas are very common in Colombia and Venezuela. They consist of a ground maize dough filled with a variety of ingredients such as cheese, meat and avocado.

Main course: paella

Paella is a traditional Spanish rice-based dish. Although the most known version of this dish contains seafood, the original recipe (from Valencia) includes peas, chicken and rabbit. There are also other versions corresponding to the different Spanish regions.

Dessert: alfajores

Though alfajores can be found in many South American countries, the variation you see in the picture is most common in Uruguay and Argentina. They consist of two round cookies filled with dulce the leche (a type of caramel) and are usually covered in chocolate.

You can find more meals to try in this article.

Expressions with comer

Finally, let’s take a look at some fun phrases and expressions with the verb comer that can come in handy.

Pan comido

This phrase is the perfect equivalent to the English “piece of cake”. Therefore, you use it when something is very easy.

Desayunar como un rey, comer como un príncipe y cenar como un mendigo

This expression comes from the famous proverb “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper”, which we’re sure you are familiar with.

Come y bebe que la vida es breve

This last phrase translates roughly into “Eat and drink that life is short” and, in stark contrast with the previous phrase, it means you should not worry about your dietary habits because life is just too short anyway.

Comer conjugation – conclusion

We hope this guide has helped you with the comer conjugation and answered most, if not all, of your questions. If you are looking for more information about Spanish conjugations in general, you can read our overview of Spanish tenses.