believe

«believe» in Mova's school dictionary: true — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (believe, believes, believed, believing); noun belief

meaning for a pupil

1) To believe something means to think it is true. tree →

2) To believe someone means to trust that they are telling the truth. tree →

3) To believe in something means to feel sure it exists or is good, such as believing in yourself. tree →

4) «I believe…» can also mean «I think, but I am not completely sure». tree →

sense in the lessons

In science we should believe things because of evidence: we test and check, not just trust what someone says. In stories, whether a character believes another tells us about trust, tricks and lies. In safety lessons: don't believe a stranger who says your parent sent them unless they know the family password. Phrases: believe in, can't believe, believe it or not, make-believe.

examples

• I believe that the Earth goes around the Sun, because scientists have measured it. tree →
• Do you believe me? I really did see a rainbow. tree →
• I can't believe how fast you ran! tree →
• She believes in herself, so she tried again. tree →
• Believe it or not, a snail can sleep for a very long time. tree →
• Long ago many people believed the Earth was flat. tree →
• Don't believe everything you read online; check it. tree →
• The little girl played make-believe with her dolls. tree →
• Do not believe everything you hear. tree →

note

Spelling: «i before e» — believe, belief. The noun is «belief», plural «beliefs». «Believe» is not usually used in the -ing form for opinions («I believe», not «I am believing»). Believing something does not make it true; evidence does.

In the corpora

• Different families believe different things about what happens after death, and nobody knows for certain.
• Death hoaxes about famous people spread fast because they are shocking; check a proper news site before believing or sharing one.
• Corrections are usually much smaller than the false stories they correct, so be slow to believe a shocking first story.
• Before believing a shocking story, look it up on a proper news site, and check its date.
• Shocking pictures should be confirmed by trusted news before you believe or share them.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «believe» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.