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Learn Hardcore German: Ich vertraue mir selbst. - I trust myself.

Hardcore German
/Lesson 87
/Ich vertraue mir selbst.

Ich vertraue mir selbst.

Word

Ich vertraue mir selbst.

Meaning

I trust myself.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore German

Lesson

Breakdown of Ich vertraue mir selbst.

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Questions & Answers about Ich vertraue mir selbst.

Why is it mir and not mich in Ich vertraue mir selbst?

Because vertrauen takes a dative object, not an accusative one.

mir = 1st person singular dative (to me)
mich = 1st person singular accusative (me)

Some verbs in German naturally take the dative for the person being affected. vertrauen is one of them:

Ich vertraue dir. – I trust you. (dir = dative)
Wir vertrauen unserem Lehrer. – We trust our teacher. (unserem Lehrer = dative)

So when you trust yourself, you must also use the dative:

Ich vertraue mir (selbst). – I trust myself.

Is mir here a reflexive pronoun?

Grammatically, mir is the dative personal pronoun for 1st person singular, but in this sentence it functions like a reflexive pronoun.

German has special reflexive pronouns (mich, dich, sich, uns, euch, sich) that are used mainly in the accusative, and sometimes in the dative. In the 1st and 2nd person, these forms are identical to the normal personal pronouns.

So:

Formally: mir is just the normal dative pronoun for ich.
Functionally here: it refers back to the subject ich, so it behaves reflexively (= I trust myself).

That’s why learners often just call this use “reflexive,” even though no special reflexive form appears.

Why do we need both mir and selbst? Don’t they both mean “myself”?

They don’t mean the same thing.

mir = the actual object of the verb; it tells you who is being trusted.
selbst = an emphasizer, adding the idea of “myself (and not someone else)” or “me personally”.

Compare:

Ich vertraue mir. – I trust myself. (neutral statement)
Ich vertraue mir selbst. – I trust myself (in particular), with extra emphasis.

Without mir, the sentence would be incomplete; selbst alone cannot be the object. Without selbst, the core meaning I trust myself is still there, just less emphatic.

Can I omit selbst and just say Ich vertraue mir?

Yes.

Ich vertraue mir. is perfectly correct German and commonly used. It already means I trust myself.

Adding selbst:

makes the statement a bit stronger or more contrastive:
- Ich vertraue mir selbst, aber ich vertraue ihm nicht.
  I trust myself, but I don’t trust him.
can sound more insistent or personal in some contexts.

So:

Everyday, neutral: Ich vertraue mir.
Emphasized / contrastive: Ich vertraue mir selbst.

Can I say Ich vertraue mich selbst?

No, that is ungrammatical.

Two reasons:

vertrauen always uses dative, and mich is accusative. You need mir:
- ✅ Ich vertraue mir (selbst).
- ❌ Ich vertraue mich (selbst).
Even if you tried to use the real reflexive pronoun, vertrauen is not a standard reflexive verb; it just happens to take a dative object. So there is no form like:
- ❌ Ich vertraue mich.

The only correct pattern is:

Ich vertraue + dative person/thing
→ Ich vertraue mir selbst.

What is the difference between Ich vertraue mir selbst and Ich traue mir selbst?

They are very close in meaning, but there are nuances.

jemandem vertrauen
= to trust someone deeply, to have confidence in their character/reliability.
jemandem trauen
can also mean to trust someone, but is often used more situationally:
to trust that someone is capable of something / to consider them able to do something.

So:

Ich vertraue mir selbst.
I have fundamental trust in myself, in who I am, in my decisions.
Ich traue mir selbst.
I trust myself / I think I’m capable. Often used like:
- Ich traue mir das zu. – I think I’m capable of that / I trust myself to do that.

Both can overlap, and in casual speech many people won’t feel a big difference in a simple sentence like this, but vertrauen tends to sound a bit deeper, more about basic confidence, while trauen often relates to specific abilities or actions.

Do we ever use a preposition with vertrauen, like auf?

Normally, vertrauen is used without any preposition for the person or thing trusted:

Ich vertraue dir. – I trust you.
Wir vertrauen unserem Team. – We trust our team.
Ich vertraue mir selbst. – I trust myself.

With abstract nouns, you sometimes see auf:

auf Gott vertrauen – to trust in God
auf sein Glück vertrauen – to rely on one’s luck

But for a person or yourself, the usual pattern is:

jemandem vertrauen (dative, no preposition)
→ Ich vertraue mir selbst.

What tense and form is vertraue in Ich vertraue mir selbst?

vertraue is:

present tense
1st person singular form of vertrauen

Conjugation in the present tense:

ich vertraue
du vertraust
er/sie/es vertraut
wir vertrauen
ihr vertraut
sie/Sie vertrauen

So Ich vertraue mir selbst. means I trust myself (present, ongoing/general fact).

Can the word order change, like Mir selbst vertraue ich?

Yes, German allows flexible word order.

Neutral, standard: Ich vertraue mir selbst.
With emphasis on mir selbst: Mir selbst vertraue ich.

By moving mir selbst to the beginning, you emphasize who you trust:

Mir selbst vertraue ich, aber anderen vertraue ich nicht.
I trust myself, but I don’t trust others.

The meaning (who trusts whom) stays the same because the cases and verb endings make it clear.

Is selbst the same as selber in this sentence?

In modern spoken German, selbst and selber are usually interchangeable in this kind of use:

Ich vertraue mir selbst.
Ich vertraue mir selber.

Both are understood as I trust myself with emphasis on myself.

Stylistic differences:

selbst often sounds a bit more formal or neutral.
selber often sounds a bit more colloquial or regional.

Grammatically, both work the same way here; it’s mainly a style and register choice.

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