No lo sabe nadie
I'm studying, and I came across the following:
¿Quién sabe esto? No lo sabe nadie.
I would have said: Nadie lo sabe.
Am I wrong? Or does either one work?
I think I'm having double negative confusion...please help!
6 Answers
There is actually a grammatical rule about negatives in Spanish. If I remember this correctly, in a negative statement a negative must precede the verb. So you can say,
Nadie lo sabe.
Because there is a negative before the verb.
But you cannot say
Lo sabe nadie. If nadie follows the verb you have to use the double negative:
No lo sabe nadie.
Compare these:
¿Quién sabe esto? who knows this?
1. No lo sabe. (unspecified singular subject) doesn't know it.
2. No lo sabe nadie. nobody doesn't know it.
Which do you prefer? First get past the completely unavoidable double-negative. If you go with the first one, how do you know the response isn't directed at the first student sitting in the front, middle seat? It's better here to have a subject.
Well it's not that "nadie lo sabe" is really incorrect, it's just that seeing a double negative might be more common in Spanish. It's kind of an emphasis thing.
Lucie, don't worry. Both "no lo sabe nadie" and "nadie lo sabe" are perfectly correct. They don't differ in meaning importantly, the difference is very subtle.
Languages have different forms to express the same thing. This is one of those examples. "Nadie lo sabe" is perfect, but I, as a native speaker, like saying "no lo sabe nadie". For some reason, it seems to be closer to my thoughts.
Pesta:
It's better here to have a subject.
Actually, I'm not perceiving that nadie as a subject (although it is). Rather, I think I'd translate it as :
(That) is not known to anyone.
Which probably sounds quite strange to you, but I think it's closer to the sense of "no lo sabe nadie"
Mlucie, that double-negative gets me, too. I think "no lo sabe nadie" is correct, though it literally translates into English as an unacceptable double negative.
