Confident - in, of, with, about?

New Home · 13-10-2019 1:41pm #1

The more I think about it, the less sense the words make, so I'm looking for help, please.

What preposition would you use after "confident" to indicate that you trust both the way you carried out your work, and the outcome of the work itself? For instance, if you were to use the word "work" after "confident", the former would indicate both your efforts and their outocome (in a way, the opposite of "The operation was a success, but we lost the patient").

Would you say "I'm confident in/of/with/about the work"?

To me, "with" would fit more with the meaning I'm looking for, but what do you guys think?

Thanks.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 13-10-2019 1:44pm

I'd change it slightly to "I have confidence in the work".

New Home · 13-10-2019 1:47pm

Thanks S., but this is for a leaflet that will say just "Confident + preposition + your work?" (specifying the type of work) and the details of a workshop.

But going by your sentence, you'd use "in" then, would you?

Irishphotodesk · 13-10-2019 1:55pm

All depends on context, if you are attempting to express a confidence in the ability of the worker and the workmanship of the completed job, there can be different and are in this case may be both different yet linked.

As srameen mentions above, a singular sentence can express both confidence in the worker and the quality of the finished work.

Irishphotodesk · 13-10-2019 1:55pm

All depends on context, if you are attempting to express a confidence in the ability of the worker and the workmanship of the completed job, there can be different and are in this case may be both different yet linked.

As srameen mentions above, a singular sentence can express both confidence in the worker and the quality of the finished work.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 13-10-2019 1:55pm

As 'confident' it becomes an adjective.

There are many possibilities depending on intended usage.

Confident in + posessive pronoun + "ability to..." = "I think I/he/they etc. can [do that]"
Confident of (+ possessive pronoun) + gerund (e.g. "being able to + infinitive", "winning") (+ noun) = "I'm sure that I can/will [do that]", or with a pronoun "I'm sure that he/they etc. can/will [do that]"
Confident about (+ pronoun) + gerund (e.g. "going", "driving" + place, etc.) = "I'm not worried about (him/they etc.) [doing that]"
Confident that + subject + will/would (usually) + verb + object = "I'm sure that subj. will [do that to] obj."

About may be the nearest. But I don't think there's a hard and fast rule or anything fundamentally wrong with any of them.

New Home · 13-10-2019 1:58pm

Thank you.

looksee · 13-10-2019 8:43pm

I would use in or possibly of in those circumstances. They have a slightly different shade of meaning but it depends on exactly what you are trying to say. I'm repeating Srameen here but to me 'confident in' means being confident in the process of doing it, whereas 'confident of' means confident of the outcome.

New Home · 13-10-2019 9:15pm

Is there one that indicates both?

looksee · 13-10-2019 9:28pm

On balance I'd say 'in' as it can just about be read either way.

New Home · 13-10-2019 10:00pm

Thanks, everyone.

Confident - in, of, with, about?

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