"confident of" vs. "confident in"

[Ichiro]

Could you please tell me the difference between these two phrases:

1. I am confident of ...
2. I am confident in ...

I looked up "confident" in a dictionary and found the phrase "confident of".
I could not find, however, that another phrase "confident in" there,
which I sometimes see in articles.

I am very keen to know whether there is a diffrence between these or not
and whether the second one is popular or not.

Thank you.

[Jamie (K)]

Ichiro, "confident of" and "confident in" are the same thing. As far as I can tell, they're completely interchangeable and both correct. If you believe Google search statistics, the exact phrase "confident in" is about two-thirds more common than "confident of".

[Ichiro]

Thank you for replying to my question. It is very helpful.

[Sympathy]

Thanks.
Can you tell me more about the statistics. Where can I access the database?

[Jamie (K)]

[Lxguy]

"I'm confident of him" mainly refers to his doing or action.
"I'm confident in him" mainly refers to his personaliy.
That's my opinion.Generally,before verb-ing,in may be used more often.

[Jamie (K)]

[Lxguy]

1.Well,the two sentences I put forward are just two examples.Apparently they don't have any relation with Jesus.Besides him,many other pronouns can be followed.
e.g.
And your audience will feel your confidence. Your audience, too, will be confident. They will be confident in you.

2.By the way,I mean before a verb which is ended with ing form,"be confident in" may be used more often.
e.g. The enterprise is confident in promoting innovation.
confident in fighting illegal pricing

[Freelance Editor]

Someone suggested Googling the expression to see which preposition was used most often. But that way, you're not getting the correct grammar, just the most common usage. If you look at dictionary examples, such as the Merriam Webster online dictionary, you'll see that "confident of" is used.

For example, "I am confident of my ability to learn grammar." "I am confident of her trustworthiness."

But with "confidence," you need to use "in": "I have confidence in her trustworthiness."

If you have the sentence,
"The enterprise is confident in promoting innovation."
it would be better to change it to "confident that it can promote innovation" to make the meaning clear.