Can this sentence be rephrased like this?

Question

I’ve come across this sentence

「それに考えてないよ高木さんのことなんて…」

Which translates to

“Moreover why would I be thinking about Takagi-san”

While the literal translation would probably be something like

“Moreover I haven’t been thinking about Takagi-san or Takagi-san-like things, you know”

And I’ve been wondering if it could be rephrased as follows

「それに高木さんのことなんて考えてないよ…」

I think that the rephrasing makes the speaker seem more sure of himself in comparison to the original sentence but is there any other difference in meaning or nuance that I may have inadvertently induced by this reordering? Does it sound as natural as the original? Is it even valid? Would it still be translated the same way?

Thanks!

Answer 1

1. それに考えてないよ高木さんのことなんて…
2. それに高木さんのことなんて考えてないよ…

The two sentences are the same except for the word order, and their meanings are also identical. Sentence 2 is the standard in terms of word order, and Sentence 1 is an "inverted" sentence (倒置/hyperbaton). In reality, a sentence like 1 is is very common in casual speech even when a rhetorical effect is not intended. See: Does word order change the meaning of a sentence?

But note that なんて never means "or something/someone like that". Maybe you thought など and なんて have exactly the same meaning? なんて does not have a meaning of "et cetera", but it is used to add a nuance of making light of the word that comes before it.