How do you say I don’t care in Italian?

How exactly do you say I don’t care in Italian?

In this lesson, we will look at the different ways you can translate this sentence into Italian. Read on to learn them all!

Let’s get started! Iniziamo!

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How do you say I don’t care in Italian?

Non mi importa

Non mi importa is the most common way to say I don’t care in Italian.

This common sentence in Italian is made up of three words.

Non
Not

Mi
Indirect object pronoun for “I”, as in “to me”

Importa
Matters

Non mi importa se faremo tardi, andremo comunque.
I don’t care if we’re going to be late, we’re going anyway.

Importa is the third-person singular conjugation of importare, to matter or to care, in the present tense.

Since we could literally translate I don’t care in Italian as “this doesn’t matter to me”, the verb importare will always be importa, no matter what the subject is in the English sentence. For example…

Luca non studia. Non gli importa se prenderà un brutto voto.
Luca doesn’t study. He doesn’t care if he gets a bad grade.

Non ci importa cosa dicono.
We don’t care what they say.

In spoken language, it’s often shortened to non m’importa, dropping the -i in mi and adding an apostrophe.

If you want to sound harsher, you can also say non me ne importa niente, it doesn’t matter anything to me.

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Non mi interessa

Non mi interessa is a softer translation for I don’t care in Italian. It literally means “it doesn’t interest me” and could also translate the English sentence I’m not interested.

It comes from the verb interessare, which means to interest or to affect. It’s completely interchangeable with non mi importa.

Non ti interessa il riscaldamento climatico?
Don’t you care about global warming?

Non mi interessa quanto costa.
I don’t care how much it costs.

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Non me ne frega

Non me ne frega is an even more direct translation for I don’t care in Italian. It uses the verb fregarsene, which means not to care or not to give a damn.

Non me ne frega niente di quello che dicono in televisione.
I don’t give a damn what they say on television.

Lo so che non te ne frega niente, ma almeno fai finta che ti interessi.
I know you don’t care, but at least pretend to care.

Similar to non me ne frega, in very informal situations you can also say me ne frego, which also means I don’t give a damn, so don’t use this if you don’t want to sound rude.

Me ne frego di quello che dici, non cambierò idea!
I don’t give a damn what you say, I won’t change my mind!

The swear variant non me ne frega un cazzo is also quite popular, but don’t use it if you don’t want to risk sounding very rude!

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Me ne infischio, me ne sbatto

Me ne infischio and me ne sbatto are other rather harsh translations for I don’t care in Italian and are very similar to me ne frego, because fregarsene, infischiarsene and sbattersene mean the same thing: to not give a damn.

Me ne sbatto has an even more aggressive variant, me ne sbatto i coglioni. This expression is very harsh, so be careful not to use it if you don’t want to sound very rude. Coglioni translates to balls or nuts and is an Italian swear word.

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Chissene

Here are other popular ways to translate I don’t care in Italian, starting with the expression chi se ne or chissene, where chi means who. They are pretty rough, but they don’t contain swear words.

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Other ways to say I don’t care in Italian

There are even more ways to translate this sentence into Italian! Here are some figurative ways to say it. These are not as popular and can be quite aggressive depending on the context, but are not considered swear words.

And that’s the end of our lesson on how to say I don’t care in Italian in all its forms!

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