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I saw in a practice test the following sentence as the correct answer: Sie glaubt es mir nicht.

my guess is that it means: She does not trust me with it. is it true?

Edit: A screenshot of the practice test enter image description here

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  • Welcome to German.SE. Just a quick question: you are 100 % sure that you did not miss any comma? Because your sentence is valid and it changes the meaning very fast if you add a comma.
    – Shegit Brahm
    Jun 8, 2020 at 13:37
  • The original sentence does not have any commas. I added a screenshot to the question.
    – mj_cipher
    Jun 8, 2020 at 13:40

1 Answer 1

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It means "she doesn't believe me about a certain thing". The "es" (it/certain thing) can refer to whatever she doesn't believe you exactly, e.g. "meine Geschichte" (my story).

It might make sense to add "es" if you describe what she doesn't believe you before or after that sentence.

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    "Sie glaubt mir nicht" is different in that it can mean that she does not believe him in general whereas "Sie glaubt es mir nicht" means there is one thing she does not believe.
    – RHa
    Jun 8, 2020 at 19:16
  • see it the same way like RHa, I give a -1 for that as the answer is inaccurate
    – Shegit Brahm
    Jun 8, 2020 at 19:25
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    I tried to outline that in my answer. I think I can say "Ich sagte, dass ich zuhause war, aber sie glaubte (es) mir nicht" and ommitting the "es" does not change the meaning because it does not imply that she doesn't believe me in general. The "es" may change the meaning but this depends on the context (which we don't know in this case).
    – Marc
    Jun 8, 2020 at 19:41
  • I think you need to stick to what the OP gives in the question. Anything beyond looks like "I make the question fit to my answer". As far as I read your answer it lacks an equal listing of potential intentions - because "has the same meaning" is highlighted due to position at least.
    – Shegit Brahm
    Jun 9, 2020 at 13:09
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    @RHa depends on context, I guess. "Ich habe ihr erzählt, dass ..., aber sie glaubt mir nicht" even without "es" (and without additional "sowieso" or "grundsätzlich") would typically be interpreted as her not believing only this single story
    – Hagen von Eitzen
    Jun 9, 2020 at 20:45

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