"El señor al que nada le importaba un comino"
This is more for beginners and intermediates, you natives and advanced will know this immediately., let the rest of us try this before you answer
I encountered this phrase in a small book I am reading,
This is the title of a chapter
"El señor al que nada le importaba un comino"
The first part of the phrase caused brain failure, the second part was fairly easy.
What say you?
13 Answers
I see this is still causing confusion. No wonder, because the title is in fact a devious word play, that fuses two common expressions, and makes fun of the use of double negatives in Spanish.
People usually say: "me importa un comino", to meant that I really don't care much about this. Also it is common to say: "No me importa" or "no me importa nada" - roughly, nothing matters to me.
The problem is rather similar to the confusion and conflict in English between those who say "I could care less" and "I couldn't care less". By and large, anyone who uses either expression means "I don't care". But technically speaking, "I could care less" means that I do care at least a little bit.
So when you're presented with "El hombre al que nada le importa un comino" you have a similar problem with how to interpret: "The man who couldn't care less about nothing".
...
Wait - so does he care, or doesn't he? It's a double negative, so logically he cares about everything, right?
El hombre al que nada (the man to whom nothing) - le importa un comino (hardly matters at all). So he must be concerned about everything, he must care very much about every little thing.
Okay the answer is, And by the way I had to call a native speaker to help me with it.
"El señor al que nada le importaba un comino"
"The man to whom no detail was too small"
"the man to whom" was what made me crazy
"The man to whom no detail was too small"?
What Spanish-speaking country accepts that meaning for ""El señor al que nada le importaba un comino" ?
It's not at all what I have always heard it used for.
Wait this is not at all trivial. As Tom indicated, the sentence is very different if it has a comma and if it doesn't. Which one is it, exactly?
Without the comma, is a fairly simply, straightforward sentence. With the comma, it becomes a more difficult-to-explain word play.
The man who hated cumin in his food?? 
Hmm, this does seem kind of hard. I have a few ideas, but I'm not really sure. The man to whom nothing mattered? The man who cared about nothing? The man who didn't care? Well, I guess those are all just rewordings of what I think it might mean, but I thought maybe one of them would sound better than the others.
The man who did not care could less about anything.
Hello all
This little book "popurrí was published in México in 1986. The phrase is one of the chapter titles. The chapter has to do with a man to whom no tiny detail is too small.
I could not manage the meaning of the first part of the statement.I live in the north of mexico and a friend of mine,a native speaker, knew it immediatly.
¿Un señor que importaba cominos de la India?
The man that nothing mattered to--he didn't give a darn
It looks like "The man who didn't give a **** about anything."
The first part seems to be saying: The man (or gentleman, sir) to whom nothing.... or for whom nothing... does that come close to your rendering? 
So.... what is the answer??!! 
