Breakdown of Viele Menschen glauben an Gott.
viel
much / a lot
glauben
to believe
an
at, on (vertical) / to (addressee) / of (in quantity/stock expressions)
der Mensch
the human, person
der Gott
the god, God
Questions & Answers about Viele Menschen glauben an Gott.
Why does this sentence use an instead of the German word for 'in'?
In German, the verb glauben (to believe) pairs with the preposition an when you are talking about believing in something or someone. Prepositions rarely translate perfectly word-for-word, so it is best to memorize the fixed phrase glauben an.
Does an trigger the dative or accusative case here?
When used with glauben, the preposition an always triggers the accusative case. Although Gott (God) does not have an article here to visibly show the case, if you were to say 'believe in the man', it would be an den Mann.
Since this lesson is about dass (that), how would I say 'Many people believe that God exists'?
You would drop the preposition an and use dass to start a new clause after a comma. Because dass is a subordinating conjunction, it pushes its verb to the very end of that clause: Viele Menschen glauben, dass Gott existiert.
What is the singular form of Menschen?
The singular is der Mensch (the human or person). It belongs to a group of masculine nouns called 'weak nouns' (or n-nouns). These nouns add an -en in the plural, which gives us viele Menschen (many people) here.
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