Não importa se o curso é caro, eu quero aprender português.

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Breakdown of Não importa se o curso é caro, eu quero aprender português.

• ser: to be
• querer: to want
• português: Portuguese

Questions & Answers about Não importa se o curso é caro, eu quero aprender português.

Why does importa mean matters here, not imports?

Because importar has more than one meaning in Portuguese.

• importar = to import
• importar = to matter, to be important

In Não importa se..., it means it doesn’t matter whether/if...

This use is very common and often works like an impersonal expression:

• Não importa. = It doesn’t matter.
• O que importa é aprender. = What matters is learning.

So in this sentence, importa is about importance, not international trade.

Why doesn’t the sentence say isso não importa? Where is the subject?

Portuguese often uses importa impersonally, especially in expressions like não importa se...

So Não importa se o curso é caro is essentially:

• It doesn’t matter if the course is expensive

The it in English is just a dummy subject. Portuguese often does not need to express that kind of subject.

You could sometimes hear:

• Isso não importa. = That doesn’t matter.

But in this sentence, não importa se... is the more natural structure.

What does se mean here?