Confiar Examples, Sentences and Quiz in Spanish
Introduction
confiar means "to trust" in English, and it is a verb you will use constantly once you start speaking Spanish for real. This page shows confiar in everyday sentences, grouped by meaning, then puts it into two short conversations, lists the mistakes learners actually make, and finishes with a ten-question quiz and answers to the most common questions. Every sentence below uses a real form of confiar, so you can copy the patterns and change the person, the tense and the complement to make your own versions. Start with the examples, say them aloud, and then try the quiz without looking back.
Example sentences with confiar
Trusting people
Confiar en alguien means to trust a person: you believe what they say and you believe they will do what they promise. It is one of the most personal verbs in Spanish, and it almost always takes en before the person.
- Cada día, yo confío en mis amigos. — "Every day, I trust my friends."
- Hoy, él / ella confía en mi hermano. — "Today, he / she trusts my brother."
- Ayer, yo confié en el médico. — "Yesterday, I trusted the doctor."
- Antes, yo confiaba en tu palabra. — "Before, I used to trust your word."
- Mañana, yo confiaré en mis amigos. — "Tomorrow, I will trust my friends."
- Hoy, yo he confiado en mi hermano. — "Today, I have trusted my brother."
Trusting things and institutions
Confiar also takes institutions, systems and ideas as its object: confiar en el sistema, confiar en la ciencia, confiar en tu palabra. In every case the structure is the same: confiar en + the thing you trust.
- Cada día, yo confío en el médico. — "Every day, I trust the doctor."
- Hoy, él / ella confía en tu palabra. — "Today, he / she trusts your word."
- Ayer, yo confié en mis amigos. — "Yesterday, I trusted my friends."
- Antes, yo confiaba en mi hermano. — "Before, I used to trust my brother."
- Mañana, yo confiaré en el médico. — "Tomorrow, I will trust the doctor."
- Hoy, yo he confiado en tu palabra. — "Today, I have trusted your word."
Confiar in conversation
The two dialogues below show confiar in natural conversation. The first is about trusting people, and the second is about trusting things and institutions. Read both parts aloud, then try to continue each dialogue with a sentence of your own.
Dialogue 1
- ¿Tú confías en mis amigos? — "Do you trust my friends?"
- Sí, yo confío en mis amigos cada día. — "Yes, I trust my friends every day."
- ¿Y ayer? ¿Tú confiaste en mi hermano? — "And yesterday? Did you trust my brother?"
- Sí, ayer yo confié en mi hermano. — "Yes, yesterday I trusted my brother."
- Mañana yo confiaré en el médico también. — "Tomorrow I will trust the doctor too."
Dialogue 2
- ¿Vosotros confiáis en el médico? — "Do you trust the doctor?"
- Sí, nosotros confiamos en el médico los fines de semana. — "Yes, we trust the doctor at the weekends."
- ¿Y ellos? ¿Ellos confían en tu palabra? — "And them? Do they trust your word?"
- Sí, ellos confían en tu palabra también. — "Yes, they trust your word too."
- Mañana nosotros confiaremos en el médico otra vez. — "Tomorrow we will trust the doctor again."
Common mistakes with confiar in everyday use
Mistake 1
- Wrong: Yo confío mis amigos.
- Right: Yo confío en mis amigos.
- Why: Confiar needs en before its object. Without en the sentence is incomplete: confío en mis amigos, confío en el médico, confío en tu palabra.
Mistake 2
- Wrong: Yo confio en ti.
- Right: Yo confío en ti.
- Why: The yo form is confío, with an accent on the í. The accent is part of the spelling, and without it the word is simply misspelled.
Mistake 3
- Wrong: Confiar es lo mismo que fiarse.
- Right: Confiar and fiarse are close but not identical.
- Why: Fiarse is the pronominal twin of confiar and it often means to trust in a more instinctive, personal way (me fío de ti). Confiar is the standard, neutral verb; fiarse is more colloquial and more emotional.
Mistake 4
- Wrong: Cada día, yo confié en mis amigos.
- Right: Cada día, yo confío en mis amigos.
- Why: Cada día means every day, so the action is a habit and needs the present tense. The preterite is for one finished action, not for routines.
Mistake 5
- Wrong: Yo confío en mis amigos ayer por la mañana.
- Right: Ayer por la mañana yo confié en mis amigos.
- Why: Ayer por la mañana means yesterday morning, so the action is finished and needs the preterite, not the present.
Quiz: confiar in use
Ten questions on confiar across the tenses. The answers are explained, so read them even when you get a question right.
1. What is the i form of confiar in the present tense?
- (a) confía
- (b) confiamos
- (c) confío
- (d) confías
Answer: (c) confío. The i form in the present is confío.
2. What is the he / she form of confiar in the present tense?
- (a) confiamos
- (b) confía
- (c) confío
- (d) confías
Answer: (b) confía. The he / she form in the present is confía.
3. What is the he / she form of confiar in the preterite tense?
- (a) confió
- (b) confié
- (c) confiaste
- (d) confiamos
Answer: (a) confió. The he / she form in the preterite is confió.
4. What is the i form of confiar in the imperfect tense?
- (a) confío
- (b) confié
- (c) confiaré
- (d) confiaba
Answer: (d) confiaba. The i form in the imperfect is confiaba. The other options are the same person in the present, preterite and future.
5. What is the i form of confiar in the future tense?
- (a) confiará
- (b) confiaremos
- (c) confiaré
- (d) confiarás
Answer: (c) confiaré. The i form in the future is confiaré.
6. Which is the correct present perfect form for i?
- (a) confié
- (b) confiaba
- (c) confío
- (d) he confiado
Answer: (d) he confiado. The present perfect is haber + the past participle: he confiado.
7. Complete the sentence: Espero que él ___ en mis amigos.
- (a) confiaba
- (b) confíe
- (c) confía
- (d) confió
Answer: (b) confíe. After espero que, Spanish needs the present subjunctive: confíe. The indicative form would be wrong here.
8. What is the we form of confiar in the present tense?
- (a) confío
- (b) confías
- (c) confía
- (d) confiamos
Answer: (d) confiamos. The we form in the present is confiamos.
9. What is the i form of confiar in the preterite tense?
- (a) confió
- (b) confiamos
- (c) confié
- (d) confiaste
Answer: (c) confié. The i form in the preterite is confié.
10. What is the they form of confiar in the present tense?
- (a) confía
- (b) confían
- (c) confío
- (d) confías
Answer: (b) confían. The they form in the present is confían.
Frequently asked questions about confiar
Does confiar take en or de?
Confiar takes en: confío en ti, confío en el sistema. The related verb fiarse takes de: me fío de ti. Mixing the two prepositions is one of the most common learner errors with this verb.
Is confío spelled with an accent?
Yes. The yo form is confío, the tú form is confías and the él form is confía. The accent falls on the í in the three singular forms and in the ellos form confían.
What is the difference between confiar and creer?
Creer means to believe something is true; confiar means to trust someone or something. You can creer una historia without confiar en la persona que la cuenta.
How can I practise confiar?
Start with the examples above: say each sentence aloud, then change the person and the complement. Then take the quiz, and finish with the Verb Quiz and the Conjugation Practice tools, which test the same forms in a different order. A few minutes a day with one verb is worth more than an hour once a week.