Confident IN/ON/WITH/ABOUT/OF? Which is the correct Preposition?

Vocabulary / By

We use “confident in” when we trust our ability. We use “confident of” when we believe something will come true. 

Examples:

I feel confident in my ability to pass the exam.

I am confident of the fact that justice will be served.

I feel confident on camera.

I always feel confident with him.

I am confident about our ability to beat our opponents.

The adjective “confident” can be used with many prepositions for different contexts. There are also situations when no preposition is needed. 

It is important to note that the meaning of the sentence doesn’t really change when you change the preposition but rather the preposition changes depending on the context. This is a fairly flexible part of the English language and more than one preposition may be possible. 

Confident In

We use “confident in” when we are saying that we believe in someone’s abilities. We use “confident” with the verbs “to be” or “to feel”. 

I am confident in her ability to complete the task. 

In fact “to be confident in” probably should be “to have confidence in”.

I have confidence in her ability to complete the task.  

Confident Of

“To be confident of something” means that you believe something is true or that something will happen. 

I am confident of winning the game. 

This use of “confident of” is becoming less common and people nowadays prefer to use no preposition and rather start a new clause with “that”.

I am confident that I will win the game. 

“Confident of” is slightly more formal and could be more suitable for newspaper headlines.

Scottish Manager Confident of Victory. 

Confident With

“Confident with” is more commonly used to show that you feel trust in people and that you are comfortable around them. 

I always feel confident with him.

Confident About

“Confident about” is more commonly used to show a more general trust in something. 

Do you feel confident about the future?

I am feeling more confident about my body.

No Preposition – Confident That

It is becoming more common nowadays to use no preposition and to use “confident that” instead. This is especially the case when making a prediction about a future outcome.

I am confident that he will see sense in the end. 

He is so confident that he will get the girl. 

Confident On

“On” is not a dependent preposition with “confident” but rather depends on the noun that follows.

She looks confident on T.V. (We use the preposition “on” with T.V)

Conor
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