confident

To feel good about yourself is to feel confident. A confident person believes his or her work or abilities are good. The verbs "be" and "feel" are often used with this adjective:

• Elvira is confident that she’ll get the job she applied for. She feels confident in her abilities.
• Isak feels confident about his English skills.
• The members of the team felt confident before the football game began.
• The students who studied felt confident before they took the test. The students who did not study did not feel confident.
• Lisa says she doesn’t feel confident about her doctor’s prognosis.
• William is confident that he’s the right man to become president.

The word "confidence" is a noun:

• She has a lot of confidence in herself.
• Her confidence is a little overwhelming. (She’s a little too confident.)
• Bill was brimming with confidence as he walking into the room.
• Confidence is an important quality in a salesperson.
• You should have confidence in yourself when you do anything.

The word "confidently" is an adverb.

• He does his work quickly and confidently.
• The speaker confidently addressed the audience.
• Bill walked into the meeting confidently expecting he would make a sale.

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Try this exercise:

The words "confident" and "confidence" are often followed by a reflexive pronoun. See if you can figure out how to complete the following sentences:

• 1. I feel confident about __________.
• 2. You have a lot of confidence in __________.
• 3. He feels confident in ___________.
• 4. The confidence she has in ___________ is inspiring.
• 5. We are confident in __________.
• 6. You all need to feel confident about __________.
• 7. They have confidence in __________.

The answers are below.

Click here to learn more words.

Answers: 1. myself; 2. yourself; 3. himself; 4. herself; 5. ourselves; 6. yourselves; 7. themselves

This page was first published on April 3, 2014. It was updated on January 13, 2016.