Matter Important I Past Mattered Simple Verb Bre

• the children matter more to her than anything else in the world.
• ‘what did you say?’ ‘oh, it doesn't matter’ (= it is not important enough to repeat).
• ‘i'm afraid i forgot that book again.’ ‘it doesn't matter (= it is not important enough to worry about).’
• what does it matter if i spent $100 on it—it's my money!

matter

1. to be important or have an important effect on somebody/something
• The children matter more to her than anything else in the world.
• ‘What did you say?’ ‘Oh, it doesn't matter’ (= it is not important enough to repeat).
• ‘I'm afraid I forgot that book again.’ ‘It doesn't matter (= it is not important enough to worry about).’
• What does it matter if I spent $100 on it—it's my money!
• As long as you're happy, that's all that matters.
• After his death, nothing seemed to matter any more.
• He's been in prison, you know—not that it matters (= that information does not affect my opinion of him).
• Does it really matter who did it?
• It doesn't matter to me what you do.
• It didn't matter that the weather was bad.

Extra Examples

• It didn’t matter to her that he was blind.
• It doesn’t matter about the mess.
• It doesn’t matter one whit what their ethnic background is.
• She could find a job. It hardly mattered what.
• Somehow it didn’t seem to matter much any more.
• These things matter a lot to young children.

Verb Forms

• present simple I / you / we / they matter
• he / she / it matters
• past simple mattered
• past participle mattered
• past simple mattering
• past participle mattering

Word Origin

• Middle English: via Old French from Latin materia ‘timber, substance’, also ‘subject of discourse’, from mater ‘mother’.