Timeline for Difference between "believe in" and "believe"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 5, 2017 at 17:26 | comment | added | TimR | @FumbleFingers: "Obviously you can actually say I don't believe astrology with no preposition, but that changes the meaning somewhat. " Exactly the point I was making in my answer. | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 17:21 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | I specifically searched for believed [in] astrology because that's more likely to occur in "formal" contexts than the first person assertion. Obviously you can actually say I don't believe astrology with no preposition, but that changes the meaning somewhat. Effectively, to I don't believe the claims astrologers make, whereas the more common in version has more the sense of I don't believe that astrology is based on truth (that it "exists" as a reliable source of truth). One might make a similar distinction in I don't believe [in] God. | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 17:12 | comment | added | TimR | @FumbleFingers:I don't think we can rely on ngram here inasmuch as "I don't believe astrology" is a colloquialism not likely to finds its way into print. I don't doubt that "believe in" occurs far more often. And I said "in some ways it is like a statement", not that it was a statement. I'm merely attempting to explain the usage. I do believe in astrology. You shouldn't go outdoors next week. | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 17:07 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Per this NGram, to believe astrology is vanishingly rare compared to to believe in astrology. That's because astrology is a source of knowledge and/or entity whose "existence" may be doubted, rather than an actual statement (whose veracity may be open to question). | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 16:59 | comment | added | TimR | What sentence are you speaking of? There are several in your question. | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 16:59 | history | edited | TimR | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 310 characters in body
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| Oct 5, 2017 at 16:58 | comment | added | subhajit dalal | So can I use both of them in the sentence? | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 16:56 | history | answered | TimR | CC BY-SA 3.0 |