Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): ¿Le importa si pregunto por la esterilización? - Do you mind if I ask about the sterilisation?

Breakdown of ¿Le importa si pregunto por la esterilización?

Why does the sentence use le instead of te?

Because le is the indirect object pronoun used for usted or for him/her.

With importar, Spanish usually says something like Does it bother you? using an indirect object pronoun:

So this sentence is either:

In most learner situations, the most likely interpretation is the polite usted version.

What exactly does importa mean here?

Here, importa means something like matters to you or bothers you.

In this structure, importar works a bit like gustar:

So ¿Le importa si...? is a very common way to say Do you mind if...?

Why is it si pregunto and not si pregunte?