Carlos no sabe nada=Nada sabe Carlos?
Is "Carlos no sabe nada" equal to "Nada sabe Carlos"? when i see the two sentences above in my spanish book, i am quite confused. The book says they are the same. Shouldn't the 2nd sentence's order be like "Carlos nada sabe" rather than "Nada sabe Carlos"?
5 Answers
Yes, they are both the same /they both mean the same Carlos no sabe nada = Nada sabe Carlos
The sentance construction: that is the word order in Spanish, does not follow the same rules as for sentence construction in English so you shouldn't expect the word order to make sense. Just accept / be satisfied that the meanings are the same.
Just as in English there are often a number of ways to say the same thing with perhaps a slight change of emphasis so also in Spanish . eg John waters the plants in the garden every day = Every day John waters the plants in the garden
In your sentence above the first arrangement empahsises that Carlos knows nothing; the second emphasises the fact that nothing is known by Carlos
I favour the first sentence and would choose to use that construction rather than the second as it seems a more positive way to express the same thought/idea as an opinion.
I hope that this helps 
"Carlos nada sabe"
Just as a matter of fact, this sentence is perfectly correct too. 
Has anybody thought about Carlos and his feelings. He can´t help being an idiot so perhaps we should cut him some slack, hehe.
The important thing to understand about this second way of saying this phrase is that in Spanish, the placement of the object and subject is not restricted as it is in English. In this case, Carlos is the subject, and nada the direct object. It is actually more common to place the subject after the verb, it is Carlos who knows nothing. It doesn't make sense to make nothing a subject, nothing can't know anybody.
There is another thing to note here. Spanish negative sentences MUST have a negative in front of the verb. So, you can say "Nada sabe Carlos" because 'Nada' is a negative and can be used. But if you put the object 'nada' AFTER the verb you have to use another negative before the verb. So you get "Carlos no sabe nada". In English this is a double negative and might mean that Carlos actually does knopw something, but in Spanish it always means that Carlos knows nothing.
Hope this helps, J
Carlos no sabe nada = You answer with certainty.
Nada sabe Carlos = You answer with caution.
