Comprar means 'to buy', and it is a regular -ar verb that earns heavy use in the shopping, money and daily-life topics that show up at GCSE. Compro pan (I buy bread), compré un regalo (I bought a present) — the forms are entirely predictable, which makes comprar a low-effort, high-reward verb to have ready. Because it is regular, it doubles as practice for the whole -ar family. Pair it with shopping vocabulary and you can build a convincing role-play or paragraph quickly. The usual care point is the preterite accents (compré, compró), which distinguish 'I bought' from related forms.
Quick facts
Comprar (to buy) is a regular -ar verb.
Real sentences across different tenses — the kind of thing you'd actually say or write.
Compro pan (I buy bread).
Le compré un regalo (I bought him a present).
Pairs with money and shopping vocabulary for role-plays.
Vender (to sell) is the opposite.
Fixed expressions worth knowing — they come up in listening, reading and writing tasks.
Comprar is a regular verb. Make sure you know the endings for each tense — especially the preterite and subjunctive, which is where marks are most often lost.
comprar is a regular -ar verb — it follows the standard -ar pattern in every tense. That makes it a good one to drill: if you know comprar, you know the template for all regular -ar verbs.
Type conjugations from memory and get instant feedback. That's how you actually build the automatic recall the exam needs — not from reading tables.
Practice comprar now →Three questions. Press Enter to check each answer.
yo: compro, tú: compras, él: compra, nosotros: compramos, vosotros: compráis, ellos: compran
Comprar is a regular -ar verb following the standard -ar pattern.
Use comprar in multiple tenses to show range — present, preterite and future at minimum. This is a key criterion for higher GCSE marks.
This reference is written for UK GCSE and A-Level Spanish learners and their teachers. It is designed for exam revision: every form is checked against standard conjugation rules, and the examples reflect the registers and topics that come up in the AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas specifications. Comprar is a high-frequency verb and appears often in exam papers. For active recall, use the free practice tool rather than only reading the tables.