Breakdown of Je gelooft me niet.
niet
not
geloven
to believe
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
me
me (unstressed form of mij)
Questions & Answers about Je gelooft me niet.
Could I use mij instead of me in this sentence?
Yes, you can! Mij is the stressed form of the word "me", while me is the unstressed form. You would use mij if you want to add heavy emphasis (like saying "You don't believe ME!"). In everyday, normal speech, the unstressed me is the most common choice.
Why does niet come after me instead of before it?
In Dutch, the word niet (not) usually gets placed after a specific object. Because me is a specific object pronoun, niet moves past it to the very end of the sentence.
The verb for "to believe" is geloven. Why does it change to an 'f' in gelooft?
Dutch words almost never end in a 'v'. When we find the basic stem of geloven, the 'v' changes to an 'f' to make the sound sharper (giving us geloof). Then, because the subject is je (you), we add the standard -t ending, resulting in gelooft.
Could I start the sentence with jij instead of je?
Yes, absolutely. Jij gelooft me niet is perfectly correct. Just like mij and me, jij is the stressed version and je is the unstressed version. Using je is just the standard, relaxed way to say it when you aren't trying to emphasize the word "you".
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