Could you please tell me the difference between these two phrases:
I looked up “confident” in a dictionary and found the phrase “confident of”.
I could not find, however, that another phrase “confident in” there,
which I sometimes see in articles.
I am very keen to know whether there is a diffrence between these or not
and whether the second one is popular or not.
Thank you.
Ichiro, “confident of” and “confident in” are the same thing. As far as I can tell, they’re completely interchangeable and both correct. If you believe Google search statistics, the exact phrase “confident in” is about two-thirds more common than “confident of”.
Thank you for replying to my question. It is very helpful.
Thanks.
Can you tell me more about the statistics. Where can I access the database?
You don’t need to access a language database. You can just type each exact phrase into Google, and that will give you a rough idea.
“confident of” - 3,420,000 hits
“confident in” - 6,170,000 hits
“I’m confident of him” mainly refers to his doing or action.
“I’m confident in him” mainly refers to his personaliy.
That’s my opinion.Generally,before verb-ing,in may be used more often.
Google the exact phrases “confident of him” and “confident in him”, look at the results, and you’ll find your distinction doesn’t hold true. Furthermore, you’ll find that in the majority of examples of “confident in him” the word “him” refers to Jesus. (Maybe the PRC government will censor those out, but we can see it here.)
I didn’t understand that statement. Could you try explaining it again?
1.Well,the two sentences I put forward are just two examples.Apparently they don’t have any relation with Jesus.Besides him,many other pronouns can be followed.
e.g.
And your audience will feel your confidence. Your audience, too, will be confident. They will be confident in you.
2.By the way,I mean before a verb which is ended with ing form,“be confident in” may be used more often.
e.g. The enterprise is confident in promoting innovation.
confident in fighting illegal pricing
Someone suggested Googling the expression to see which preposition was used most often. But that way, you’re not getting the correct grammar, just the most common usage. If you look at dictionary examples, such as the Merriam Webster online dictionary, you’ll see that “confident of” is used.
For example, “I am confident of my ability to learn grammar.” “I am confident of her trustworthiness.”
But with “confidence,” you need to use “in”: “I have confidence in her trustworthiness.”
If you have the sentence,
“The enterprise is confident in promoting innovation.”
it would be better to change it to “confident that it can promote innovation” to make the meaning clear.
adjective
noun archaic a confidant.
– origin late 16th century: from French confident(e), from Italian confidente, from Latin confident- ‘having full trust’, from the verb confidere, from con- (expressing intensive force) + fidere ‘trust’.