French
Pronunciation
Verb
peu importer
- (with subjunctive) to not matter, to matter little, to be unimportant
Peu importe que tu fasses comme-ci ou comme-ça, ce qui compte c'est le résultat.- It doesn't matter whether you do this or that, the outcome is what counts.
Quoi qu'on fasse, peu lui importait.- Whatever we did mattered little to him.
1950, Édith Piaf, “Hymne à l'amour”:Peu m'importent les problèmes, mon amour, puisque tu m'aimes.- The problems don't matter to me, my love, since you love me.
Usage notes
- The subject is always in the third person. If the subject is il, it is omitted; otherwise, it follows the verb.
- peu importer (e.g. peu m'importe) is more common than the synonymous, and normally expected, importer peu (e.g. il m'importe peu), the latter having formal overtones.
Derived terms