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Spanish Word of the Day Archive
Monday June 22, 2009
importar, verb:
to matter
We’ve already seen importar meaning to mind, as in:
¿Te importa que fume?
Do you mind if I smoke?
You can also use importar to talk about how much something matters, especially in the phrase No importa It doesn’t matter.
‘Llegaremos un poco tarde.’ - ‘No importa.’
‘We’ll be a bit late.’ - ‘It doesn’t matter.’
A couple of other common constructions are ¿Qué importa? What does it matter? and lo que importa... the important thing... Notice how the subjunctive is used - it’s asterisked in the following examples.
¿Qué importa que no seamos* ricos?
What does it matter that we’re not rich?
Lo que importa no es el éxito...
Success isn’t what matters...
Lo que importa es que uno sepa* vivir como se debe.
The important thing is to know how to live properly.
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