Learn Spanish (Latin America): Me importa mucho mi familia.

Me importa mucho mi familia.

My family matters a lot to me.

Breakdown of Me importa mucho mi familia.

to me / me (direct object)

Questions & Answers about Me importa mucho mi familia.

Since I am the one who cares, why is the verb importa instead of importo?

Just like gustar, importar works backwards compared to English. Instead of saying 'I care about my family,' Spanish says 'My family matters to me.' The family is the one doing the action of 'mattering,' so we use the 'it' form of the verb (importa). The me simply means 'to me.'

Can I put mi familia at the beginning and say Mi familia me importa mucho?

Yes, you can! Both word orders are perfectly correct. However, with verbs like importar and gustar, it is very common and natural in Spanish to put the subject (mi familia) at the very end of the sentence.

Since familia is a feminine word, why is it mucho instead of mucha?

In this sentence, mucho means 'a lot' and describes the verb (importa)—it tells us how much the family matters. Words that describe verbs are called adverbs, and they never change their endings. You only change the ending to mucha when describing a feminine noun (like mucha comida for 'a lot of food').

How would this sentence change if I wanted to say 'My parents matter a lot to me'?