Questions & Answers about Ich vertraue dem nicht.
Dem is a demonstrative pronoun in the dative case, roughly meaning “that one / that guy / that thing (we were just talking about)”.
- Ihm is a personal pronoun (“him/it”) in the dative, more neutral and less pointing.
- Das is nominative/accusative (“that / it”), but vertrauen requires the dative, so you cannot use das here.
So dem both satisfies the dative requirement and adds a “that one (over there / that we mentioned)” nuance.
In German, vertrauen always takes a dative object: jemandem / etwas vertrauen = “to trust someone/something.”
So you say Ich vertraue dir / ihm / ihr / dem (all dative), not dich / ihn / sie / das.
It’s simply a verb-specific rule you have to memorize: vertrauen + dative.
Yes: Ich vertraue ihm nicht is perfectly correct and common.
- Ich vertraue ihm nicht = “I don’t trust him/it,” referring to a clearly known male person or neuter noun.
- Ich vertraue dem nicht feels more like “I don’t trust that one / that guy / that thing,” slightly more distancing or pointing at someone/something (maybe with a bit of skepticism or disapproval).
Context and tone decide which sounds better.
Dem can refer to either a person or a thing.
It is dative masculine or neuter singular, so it could stand for a masculine noun (e.g. dem Mann) or a neuter noun (e.g. dem System).
Only the wider context tells you whether it means “that man,” “that system,” “that plan,” etc.
Form-wise, dem is both dative masculine and dative neuter.
In an isolated sentence like Ich vertraue dem nicht, you cannot know which one it is.
You would need the previous context (the noun that dem is replacing) to know whether it’s “that man” (masculine) or “that system/thing” (neuter).
In simple main clauses, nicht often comes near the end when it negates the whole statement or the verb phrase.
Here, Ich vertraue dem is the basic sentence, and nicht simply negates it: “I do not trust that.”
There is nothing after the verb phrase that needs to come later, so nicht ends up in final position.
Yes, Ich traue dem nicht is also correct and very natural.
- (Ver)trauen is “to trust” in a more general, sometimes slightly more formal sense.
- Trauen without the ver- is common in everyday speech for “to trust / to not trust something,” especially in shorter phrases like Ich trau dem nicht.
In many contexts they overlap, but vertrauen can sound a bit more formal or “full-strength,” while trauen is a bit more colloquial.
- Ich – subject (nominative singular, “I”).
- vertraue – verb (1st person singular of vertrauen).
- dem – object in the dative case (the person/thing you don’t trust).
- nicht – negation word, making the sentence negative.
So the structure is Subject – Verb – (Dative) Object – Negation.
English uses a direct object with “to trust” (trust him, trust it).
German vertrauen doesn’t work that way; it never takes an accusative object.
Instead, the “trusted” person or thing is always in the dative: jemandem vertrauen. That’s why you see dem (dative) instead of an accusative form.
Some common alternatives are:
- Ich traue dem nicht. – very common and natural.
- Ich habe kein Vertrauen zu dem. – more explicit: “I have no trust in that (one).”
- With a clearer reference: Ich vertraue ihm nicht / ihr nicht / diesem System nicht / diesem Mann nicht, etc.
All of these communicate that you do not trust the person or thing in question.