Trust / Believe: What's the difference?

Do you believe someone or do you trust someone?

Well, it depends.

Both are correct, but they have different meanings.

To believe something just means to accept that it is correct or true.

If someone tells you that they are 30 years old, and you think that seems correct - you don’t think they are lying to you - you think that they really are 30 years old - you believe them.

Actually, you could say to them, “I believe you.”
Or you could say, “I believe that.”

You can say believe the person, or you can say you believe the information.

They mean the same thing, because the information is coming from that person.

If you know that someone is lying to you - you know that the information is not true - you could say, “I don’t believe you,” or “I don’t believe that.” Again, this is because the information is coming from that person.

Let’s look at a few quick examples:

I believe everything she said.
This means - I think everything she said is true.

I don’t believe your story.
This means - I think your story is not true. I think you are lying.

I can’t believe this.
Here we actually do believe something is true, but we are using this language to show that we are shocked or amazed, because the thing we are talking about is so crazy or unexpected.

So, if “believe” means to accept that something is true or that someone is telling you the truth, what does “trust” mean?

Trust is more about confidence - feeling that something is going to work - feeling that someone or something is going to do the right thing - feeling that someone or something is going to help you, not hurt you.

Just like with “believe” you can trust both people and things.

Let’s look at some examples:

I don’t trust him.
This means - I don’t think he will help us - I don’t think he is being honest - I don’t think he cares about us - I think he is going to do something bad. It’s not about anything he said. It’s how I feel about him and his actions.

I trust my wife.
This means - I am confident in her. I believe that she will help me. I believe everything she says. I feel very good about our relationship. I don’t think she will lie to me or hurt me.  Again, it’s not about information or specific things she said, it’s just how I about her overall.

I don’t trust that restaurant.
This means - I do not believe that they will make me happy every time I go there. Maybe I know that their employees are not trained in basic food hygiene. Or maybe I had a bad experience there in the past. Overall, I just don’t believe that they care about me, I don’t believe that they will try their best to make sure I have a good experience.

To summarize everything-

If you believe someone or something, you believe that information is true.

If you trust someone or something, you feel like everything is going to be okay. You are not worried about something bad happening.