confiar en
verbCEFR B1
What does “confiar en” mean in English?
to trust
to trust (confiar en + person/thing; en obligatory, not a or de; near-synonym fiarse de takes de; distinct sense: confiar que = to trust/hope that)
Example sentences
Confía en ella absolutamente — es la única persona a la que le contaría algo así sin miedo a que lo fuera a contar.
He trusts her absolutely — she is the only person he would tell something like that to without being afraid she would pass it on.
Costó mucho tiempo volver a confiar en él después de la mentira, pero al final lo consiguió porque vio que había cambiado de verdad.
It took a long time to trust him again after the lie, but in the end she managed it because she could see he had genuinely changed.
Hay relaciones en las que te cuesta confiar porque en el pasado alguien te ha fallado, y eso no se borra de la noche a la mañana.
There are relationships in which it is hard to trust because in the past someone has let you down, and that is not erased overnight.
How to use it
Confiar en means 'to trust (someone or something)'. The preposition en is obligatory and cannot be replaced by a or de: 'confío en ti', never '*confío a ti'. Confiar en can take a person, an institution, or a plan as its object. There is a related but distinct construction: confiar que (+ indicative or subjunctive) means 'to trust/hope that something will happen' — this is a different sense from the trust-in-a-person meaning. A near-synonym is fiarse de alguien (to trust someone), which takes de instead of en — a common source of preposition confusion.
Common mistake
Confiar en takes en, not a or de. Its near-synonym fiarse de takes de — mixing the prepositions is a very common error. Confiar en = to trust someone; confiar que = to trust/hope that something will happen (different sense). Both prepositions must be learned with the verb.