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Conjugation Chart of “Comprar” (to buy) in the Imperfect Tense

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Understanding the Imperfect Tense of “Comprar”

The Imperfect Tense of comprar is used to describe ongoing, repeated, or habitual actions in the past, for example, Cuando era niño, compraba dulces todos los días. (When I was a child, I used to buy candies every day.)

Comprar is a regular -ar verb, so its conjugations in the Imperfect Tense follow the typical pattern for this verb type.

How to Use Comprar in the Imperfect Tense

The imperfect tense of comprar is used to describe ongoing, repeated or habitual actions in the past.

Ongoing action in the past: For example, Cuando era niño, compraba dulces todos los días. (When I was a child, I used to buy candy every day.)

Repeated or habitual action in the past: For example, Mis padres compraban el pan en la panadería de la esquina. (My parents used to buy bread at the corner bakery.)

Description in the past: For example, La tienda compraba productos de buena calidad. (The store used to buy good quality products.)

Slang/Idiomatic: Comprar can also mean “to believe” or “to buy into” something, often used in a dismissive way. For example, No le compro ese cuento. (I don’t buy that story/I don’t believe that.)

Real Life Examples of Comprar in the Imperfect Tense

Yo compraba frutas y verduras en el mercado todos los sábados. (I used to buy fruits and vegetables at the market every Saturday.)

Cuando éramos niños, comprábamos dulces después de la escuela. (When we were kids, we used to buy candy after school.)

Mis padres compraban regalos para toda la familia en Navidad. (My parents used to buy gifts for the whole family at Christmas.)

Ellos compraban boletos con anticipación para los conciertos populares. (They used to buy tickets in advance for popular concerts.)

Nosotros comprábamos artesanías en los mercados locales durante nuestros viajes. (We used to buy handicrafts at local markets during our travels.)

Tú comprabas revistas de moda cada mes, ¿verdad? (You used to buy fashion magazines every month, right?)

Ella compraba ropa de segunda mano para ahorrar dinero. (She used to buy second-hand clothes to save money.)

¿Comprabas el periódico todos los días o solo los domingos? (Did you used to buy the newspaper every day or just on Sundays?)

En la universidad, comprábamos libros usados para ahorrar. (In college, we used to buy used books to save money.)

Antes de tener hijos, comprábamos entradas para el cine cada fin de semana. (Before having kids, we used to buy movie tickets every weekend.)

Cuando compraba ropa, siempre buscaba las rebajas. (When I used to buy clothes, I always looked for sales.)

Mi abuela compraba lotería todos los viernes por la tarde. (My grandmother used to buy lottery tickets every Friday afternoon.)

¿Comprabas revistas de chismes o preferías los periódicos serios? (Did you used to buy gossip magazines or did you prefer serious newspapers?)

Ellas compraban entradas para los partidos de fútbol con mucha anticipación. (They used to buy tickets for soccer games well in advance.)

En esa época, comprábamos discos de vinilo en lugar de descargar música. (Back then, we used to buy vinyl records instead of downloading music.)

Conjugation Chart with English Translations

Conjugations of Comprar (to buy) in the Imperfect Tense (Latin American Spanish) with English Translations:

This post covers Latin American Spanish. For Castilian Spanish, click here

Synonyms

The Imperfect tense is also known as the Past Imperfect, Descriptive Past, Past Progressive, or Imperfect Indicative in English, and as Pretérito Imperfecto, Copretérito, Imperfecto de Indicativo, or Pasado Descriptivo in Spanish.