importar VERB to mind; to matter
importar is a very useful word to describe how people feel about something.
No me importa tener que levantarme temprano. I don’t mind having to get up early.
Apart from being used with the infinitive, as in the previous example, you also use it with que and then the subjunctive:
No le importa que su hijo no trabaje. He doesn’t mind his son’s not working.
importar is very often used with either of these structures when you want to make a polite request:
¿Le importa cerrar la ventanilla? Would you mind closing the window?
¿Te importa que abra la ventanilla? Do you mind if I open the window?
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”
¿Qué importa que no seamos ricos? What does it matter that we’re not rich?
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