Breakdown of Sie glaubt an Gott.
sie
she
glauben
to believe
an
at, on (vertical) / to (addressee) / of (in quantity/stock expressions)
der Gott
the god, God
Questions & Answers about Sie glaubt an Gott.
Why do we use an here instead of in for 'believes in'?
In German, many verbs have a fixed preposition they always pair with, which you just have to memorize. For 'to believe in', the combination is glauben an.
What case follows glauben an?
The preposition an here requires the accusative case. You cannot see the case on the word Gott because it does not use an article, but if you wanted to say 'She believes in the man', it would be Sie glaubt an den Mann.
How would I use this sentence to introduce a dass clause, like 'She believes that God exists'?
When you use glauben to introduce a statement, you drop the preposition an. The sentence becomes Sie glaubt, dass Gott existiert. Notice how the comma separates the clauses and the verb existiert goes to the very end.
How do I know Sie means 'she' and not 'they' or formal 'you'?
You can tell by the verb ending. If it meant 'they' or formal 'you', the verb would be plural: Sie glauben. Because it is glaubt with a -t ending, it has to be the singular 'she'.
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