Breakdown of Viertens glauben Sie an Ihr Potenzial.
Sie
you (formal)
Ihr
your (formal)
glauben
to believe
an
at, on (vertical) / to (addressee) / of (in quantity/stock expressions)
Questions & Answers about Viertens glauben Sie an Ihr Potenzial.
How is the word viertens formed, and why does it not have a standard adjective ending?
Viertens (fourthly) is an adverb of enumeration. It is formed by adding the suffix -s to the ordinal number vierte (or -ens to the root). Because it acts as an adverb modifying the sentence rather than an adjective describing a noun, its form is fixed and it never takes case endings.
Why does the verb glauben come before the subject Sie?
The adverb Viertens occupies the first position in the sentence. German strictly follows the verb-second rule in main clauses, so the verb glauben must stay in position 2, which pushes the subject Sie into position 3.
The translation says 'believe in'. Why does the sentence use the preposition an?
In German, the fixed expression for 'to believe in something or someone' is glauben an followed by the accusative case (here, Ihr Potenzial). You cannot translate the English 'in' literally; you just need to memorize that glauben pairs with an.
Why is Ihr capitalized in the middle of the sentence?