Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Mi felicidad aumenta cuando mis amigos confían en mí y me apoyan. - My happiness increases when my friends trust me and support me.

mi (no accent) = my. It’s a possessive adjective used before a noun:
- mi felicidad = my happiness
- mi casa = my house
mí (with accent) = me (after a preposition). It’s a stressed pronoun and usually appears after prepositions like a, de, para, por, en, sin, etc.:
- en mí = in me
- para mí = for me
- de mí = about me / from me

So in Mi felicidad aumenta, mi describes the noun felicidad.
In confían en mí, mí is the object of the preposition en.

Why is the verb aumenta (3rd person singular) and not aumento (1st person), if I am the one who is happier?

In this sentence, the grammatical subject is mi felicidad (my happiness), not yo (I).

Mi felicidad aumenta literally = My happiness increases.
Subject: mi felicidad → 3rd person singular → aumenta

If you used aumento, the subject would be yo:

Yo aumento = I increase (which sounds odd in this context in both English and Spanish).

If you want to center the sentence more directly on yourself, you’d change the structure:

Me siento más feliz cuando mis amigos confían en mí y me apoyan.
= I feel happier when my friends trust me and support me.

Why is it cuando mis amigos confían… with the indicative, not the subjunctive (confíen) after cuando?

The conjunction cuando can take either the indicative or the subjunctive depending on meaning:

Indicative (as in cuando mis amigos confían) is used for:
- habitual actions
- general truths
- things seen as real and not hypothetical
Here, it means: Whenever my friends trust me and support me, my happiness increases. It describes a general, repeatable situation.
Subjunctive (e.g. cuando mis amigos confíen) is used for:
- future, non-realized events
- hypothetical / uncertain situations
Example:
- Mi felicidad aumentará cuando mis amigos confíen en mí.
  = My happiness will increase when my friends trust me (in the future).

So in your sentence, it’s a general statement about what usually happens, so the indicative (confían, apoyan) is correct.

Why do we say confían en mí and not confían mí or confían de mí?

The verb confiar (to trust) in Spanish typically uses the preposition en when you say who/what you trust:

confiar en alguien = to trust someone
- Confío en ti. = I trust you.
- Ellos confían en mí. = They trust me.

Confiar de is not standard in this meaning. And you can’t drop the preposition:

❌ confían mí (incorrect)
✅ confían en mí (correct)

So the pattern to remember is: confiar en + person / thing.

Why is it en mí and not en yo? In English we say trust in me / trust in you.

In Spanish, subject pronouns and object pronouns are different:

yo = I (subject)
- Yo confío. = I trust.
mí = me (object after a preposition)
- Confían en mí. = They trust in me.

After a preposition (like en, para, de, por, etc.), you must use the object form:

✅ en mí, para mí, sin mí
❌ en yo, para yo, sin yo

What does me apoyan literally mean, and why do we need me?

The verb apoyar = to support (in many senses: emotional, moral, sometimes physical, sometimes financial).

apoyan = they support (3rd person plural)
me = direct object pronoun = me

So me apoyan = they support me.

In Spanish, you normally use object pronouns (like me, te, lo, la, nos, los, las) instead of stressed forms like a mí:

Natural: Mis amigos me apoyan. = My friends support me.
Possible but more emphatic: Mis amigos me apoyan a mí.

You cannot just say apoyan and leave out me if you want to say support me; the verb needs its object.

Could we say Mi felicidad se aumenta? Why or why not?

Typically, no. Mi felicidad se aumenta sounds unnatural in this context.

aumentar can be used:
- transitively: Algo aumenta algo.
  - El entrenamiento aumenta mi resistencia. = Training increases my stamina.
- intransitively: Algo aumenta.
  - Mi felicidad aumenta. = My happiness increases.

We usually don’t make aumentar reflexive (se aumenta) when the subject is the thing that is increasing; we just say:

Mi felicidad aumenta. (natural)
Mi felicidad va en aumento. (also natural: my happiness is on the rise)

So Mi felicidad se aumenta is grammatically possible but feels off to native speakers in this meaning.

What is the difference in meaning between Mi felicidad aumenta and something like Me siento más feliz?

Both express a similar idea, but with a slightly different focus:

Mi felicidad aumenta
- Literally: My happiness increases.
- More abstract, almost like “the level of my happiness goes up.”
- Sounds a bit more formal or “measured.”
Me siento más feliz
- Literally: I feel happier.
- Focus is on your personal feeling in the moment.
- Sounds more natural and conversational in many contexts.

You could use either depending on style and what you want to emphasize. Your original sentence with Mi felicidad aumenta is perfectly correct and clear.

Why is it mis amigos and not mis amigas? Does it exclude female friends?

In Spanish, amigos (masculine plural) can be:

a group of only men
or a mixed group (men and women)

The masculine plural is the default when the group is mixed or when gender is not specified.

mis amigos could mean:
- all male friends
- or male + female friends

If you wanted to emphasize that they’re all women, you’d say:

mis amigas = my (female) friends only

Sometimes people say mis amigos y amigas to be explicitly inclusive, but in everyday speech in Latin America, mis amigos is normally understood as inclusive of everyone unless context clearly says otherwise.

Can I change the word order and say Cuando mis amigos confían en mí y me apoyan, mi felicidad aumenta?

Yes, absolutely. That version is very natural and common:

Mi felicidad aumenta cuando mis amigos confían en mí y me apoyan.
Cuando mis amigos confían en mí y me apoyan, mi felicidad aumenta.

Both are correct. Spanish allows some flexibility in clause order. Moving the cuando-clause to the beginning does not change the meaning; it just changes the emphasis slightly.

Just make sure to keep the clause itself intact; don’t split mis amigos from confían, for example.

What kind of “support” does apoyar usually refer to in Latin American Spanish? Is it physical support or emotional support?

In this context, apoyar almost always means emotional / moral / practical support, like being there for you, helping you, encouraging you.

Examples:

Mi familia me apoya en todo.
= My family supports me in everything. (emotionally / morally / practically)
Gracias por apoyarme en los momentos difíciles.
= Thanks for supporting me in difficult times.

It can sometimes mean physical support (like propping against something), but when referring to amigos que me apoyan, native speakers will naturally interpret it as emotional or moral support.

Is felicidad always feminine, and does that affect the verb aumenta in any way?

Felicidad is always feminine:

la felicidad
mi felicidad
toda la felicidad = all the happiness

However, verb forms in Spanish do not change with grammatical gender, only with person and number. So:

La felicidad aumenta.
El nivel de felicidad aumenta.

In both cases, the verb is 3rd person singular (aumenta), even though felicidad is feminine and nivel is masculine. Gender doesn’t affect the conjugation of aumentar here.