Glauben is a high-frequency weak verb that does double duty in everyday German: it means both "to believe" (in the sense of trust / accept as true) and "to think / reckon" (the soft, tentative opinion verb, like English "I think" in I think it's going to rain). It is fully regular in its conjugation, so the work here is entirely in the valency — which case or preposition follows it — because glauben governs three different patterns depending on what you mean, and English flattens all of them into the single word believe.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Präteritum | Partizip II (auxiliary) |
|---|---|---|
| glauben | glaubte | geglaubt (hat) |
Read this as: glauben – glaubte – hat geglaubt. Perfekt with haben (it is transitive). The stem glaub- ends in -b, so no linking -e- is needed: du glaubst, er glaubt.
Präsens (present)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | glaube |
| du | glaubst |
| er / sie / es | glaubt |
| wir | glauben |
| ihr | glaubt |
| sie / Sie | glauben |
Ich glaube, es wird gleich regnen.
I think it's going to rain in a minute. (glauben = 'think / reckon' here, not religious belief)
Das glaube ich dir nicht.
I don't believe you (about that). (dir = dative person, das = accusative thing)
Präteritum (simple past)
Weak pattern stem + -te: glaubte.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | glaubte |
| du | glaubtest |
| er / sie / es | glaubte |
| wir | glaubten |
| ihr | glaubtet |
| sie / Sie | glaubten |
Niemand glaubte ihr, obwohl sie die Wahrheit sagte.
Nobody believed her, even though she was telling the truth. (ihr = dative)
Perfekt (present perfect)
Present haben + geglaubt.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | habe geglaubt |
| du | hast geglaubt |
| er / sie / es | hat geglaubt |
| wir | haben geglaubt |
| ihr | habt geglaubt |
| sie / Sie | haben geglaubt |
Das hätte ich nie geglaubt!
I would never have believed it! (Konjunktiv II Perfekt — a very common spoken exclamation)
Ich habe ihm kein Wort geglaubt.
I didn't believe a word he said. (ihm = dative person, kein Wort = accusative thing)
Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)
Past auxiliary (hatte) + geglaubt.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | hatte geglaubt |
| du | hattest geglaubt |
| er / sie / es | hatte geglaubt |
| wir | hatten geglaubt |
| ihr | hattet geglaubt |
| sie / Sie | hatten geglaubt |
Wir hatten lange geglaubt, das Problem sei gelöst.
We had long believed the problem was solved.
Futur I and Futur II
| Person | Futur I | Futur II |
|---|---|---|
| ich | werde glauben | werde geglaubt haben |
| du | wirst glauben | wirst geglaubt haben |
| er / sie / es | wird glauben | wird geglaubt haben |
| wir | werden glauben | werden geglaubt haben |
| ihr | werdet glauben | werdet geglaubt haben |
| sie / Sie | werden glauben | werden geglaubt haben |
Das wird dir sowieso niemand glauben.
Nobody's going to believe you about that anyway. (dir = dative)
Imperativ (commands)
| Addressee | Form |
|---|---|
| du | glaub (glaube) |
| ihr | glaubt |
| Sie | glauben Sie |
Glaub mir, das war keine gute Idee.
Believe me, that was not a good idea. (informal du-command, mir = dative)
Glauben Sie mir ruhig, ich habe das schon oft erlebt.
Do believe me, I've seen this happen many times. (formal Sie-command)
Konjunktiv II (would believe)
The synthetic form (glaubte) coincides with the Präteritum, so würde glauben is preferred in speech.
| Person | synthetic | würde-form (preferred) |
|---|---|---|
| ich | glaubte | würde glauben |
| du | glaubtest | würdest glauben |
| er / sie / es | glaubte | würde glauben |
| wir | glaubten | würden glauben |
| ihr | glaubtet | würdet glauben |
| sie / Sie | glaubten | würden glauben |
Wer würde so eine Geschichte schon glauben?
Who on earth would believe a story like that? (würde-form)
Government: the three patterns of glauben
This is the part to study carefully. English uses believe for all of these; German distributes them across three structures.
1. To believe a PERSON → dative; to believe a THING → accusative. When the object is a person, glauben is a dative verb (you give credence to someone): Ich glaube dir. When the object is the content believed, it is accusative: Ich glaube das / es / kein Wort. You can have both at once — dative person + accusative thing: Ich glaube *dir kein Wort*.
Glaubst du mir das jetzt endlich?
Do you finally believe me about it now? (mir = dative person, das = accusative thing)
2. To believe IN something → an + accusative. This is faith, conviction, or trust in the existence/value of something — God, ghosts, yourself, the future. The fixed preposition is an, here governing the accusative.
Ich glaube an dich — du schaffst das.
I believe in you — you can do this. (an + accusative)
Glaubst du an Geister?
Do you believe in ghosts? (an + accusative)
3. To think / hold an opinion → glauben + dass-clause (or bare clause). This is the "I reckon / I suppose" sense. Very often the dass is dropped and the subordinate clause keeps main-clause word order, exactly like English "I think (that) …".
Ich glaube, dass wir uns schon mal getroffen haben.
I think we've met before. (glauben + dass-clause)
For the closed class of dative-governing verbs, see dative verbs; for the an + accusative pattern, see verbs with prepositions; for the accusative as the case of the thing believed, see accusative functions.
glauben vs. denken vs. meinen
These three overlap with English think and trip learners up. glauben = "I reckon / I suppose" (tentative, often about facts you're unsure of). denken = "to think" in the sense of cognition or holding a view (Ich denke an dich = "I'm thinking of you"; denken an + accusative). meinen = "to mean" or "to be of the opinion" (Was meinst du? = "What do you mean / what do you reckon?"). For the cognition verb, see denken; for stating that you find something to be a certain way, see finden.
Ich glaube, er kommt heute nicht mehr.
I don't think he's coming today anymore. (tentative reckoning → glauben)
Ich denke oft an meine Großeltern.
I often think of my grandparents. (denken an + accusative, not glauben)
Common idioms and fixed expressions
| Expression | English |
|---|---|
| Ich glaube schon. | I think so. / I believe so. |
| Ich glaub's nicht! | I can't believe it! (informal, surprise or outrage) |
| Das ist nicht zu glauben. | That's unbelievable. |
| Wer's glaubt, wird selig. | A likely story / believe that if you like. (ironic proverb) |
| an sich glauben | to believe in oneself |
Ich glaub's einfach nicht, dass du das vergessen hast!
I just can't believe you forgot that! (informal, exasperated)
Common Mistakes
❌ Ich glaube dich nicht.
Incorrect — when the object is a person, glauben takes the dative, not the accusative.
✅ Ich glaube dir nicht.
I don't believe you.
❌ Glaubst du in Gott?
Incorrect preposition — belief in something is glauben an + accusative, not in.
✅ Glaubst du an Gott?
Do you believe in God?
❌ Ich glaube an dir.
Incorrect case — glauben an governs the accusative, not the dative: an dich.
✅ Ich glaube an dich.
I believe in you.
❌ Ich glaube von dem Plan.
Incorrect — to believe in/trust the plan is an den Plan; von does not belong here.
✅ Ich glaube an den Plan.
I believe in the plan.
Key Takeaways
- Principal parts: glauben – glaubte – hat geglaubt (regular weak verb, Perfekt with haben).
- Believe a person = dative (ich glaube dir); believe a thing = accusative (ich glaube das) — and you can use both at once.
- Believe in something = glauben an + accusative (an dich, an Gott).
- In the "I reckon" sense, use glauben + (dass-)clause, often with the dass dropped.
- Distinguish from denken an (to think of/about) and meinen (to mean / be of the opinion).
Now practice German
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- Dative VerbsB1 — The common German verbs that take a single dative object instead of the expected accusative, and how to remember them.
- Verbs with Fixed PrepositionsB1 — The large class of German verbs that govern a fixed preposition with a fixed case (warten auf + Akk., teilnehmen an + Dat.) — why the preposition is never the literal English one and the two-way case is lexically frozen.
- Past Participles of Weak Verbs (ge-...-t)A2 — How to build the regular German past participle: ge- + stem + -t, plus the verbs that drop ge- entirely.
- The Accusative CaseA1 — The accusative marks the direct object — and because only masculine articles visibly change, masculine 'den/einen' is the system's single biggest stumbling block.
- denken: Full Conjugation and UsageA2 — Complete conjugation of denken 'to think' across every tense and mood, with principal parts, the denken an + accusative pattern, idioms, and the errors English speakers make.
- finden: Full Conjugation and UsageA1 — Complete conjugation of finden 'to find / to think (have an opinion)' across every tense and mood, with principal parts, the accusative government, idioms, and the errors English speakers make.