me importas vs te importo

Question

I don't understand the verb importar...

seems like "no me importas" should mean, you don't care about me," but the appropriate phrase is "no te importo"? By my usual understanding, it seems like that would mean "I don't care about you." I'm confused...

Answer 1

Think of importar as meaning "to matter," and realize that it is being used intransitively. (i.e. the pronoun that it is taking is an indirect object and the verb does not act directly on it)

No importa - It doesn't matter

No me importa - It doesn't matter to me or "I don't care"

No te importo - I don't matter (no importo) to you (te). or "you don't care about me"

No me importas - You don't matter (no importas) to me (me) or "I don't care about you"

Thank you, I think that helps. Just seems unusual for some reason. "no me importa" makes perfect sense, it's only the you/me combination that I tend to swap around - VernBMarty, Nov 20, 2009

Yeah, I know how you feel. It might also be easier for you to look at as meaning "to be important" then "No me importas" would be "you are not important (no importas) to me (me)" - Izanoni1, Nov 20, 2009

With the list of examples really help me to understand. Thank you! - innooh, Oct 28, 2015

Answer 2

I don't care about you - no me importas

You don´t care about me - no te importo

Don´t you care about me? ¿No te importo?