Do you know the difference between confidence and self-confidence?
I didn’t until recently, and understanding these two ideas opened my mind to more possibility. A bigger life.
What is the difference between confidence and self-confidence?
Confidence is specific to a practiced skill or talent. It is the feeling you get from your belief about your ability to do something.
Maybe you feel confident speaking clearly in your native language. Then you switch to English and that confidence drops. That is normal. It is hard to feel confident in something you have not done much, or something you are not good at yet.
Self-confidence is the bigger mindset. It is your belief that you can learn new things and get through the hard part. Self-confidence is a willingness to feel nervous and still try.
Confidence says, “I can do this one thing.” Self-confidence says, “I can grow into the next thing.”
Confidence vs confident
A lot of people who land here are not only asking about the two nouns. They are asking confidence vs confident — the noun versus the adjective.
- Confidence is a noun. It is the feeling or the skill: “I am building confidence in English meetings.”
- Confident is an adjective. It describes a person or a moment: “I feel confident on this call.”
If you are choosing self-confidence or confident, pick the part of speech you need. Use self-confidence when you mean the quality. Use confident when you describe how you feel or how someone sounds.
Self-confident vs confident
Self-confident is also an adjective. It points at the bigger mindset, not one skill. “She is self-confident” means she will try something new even if her hands shake.
Confident can be about one task: “He is confident with the numbers.” You can be confident in one area and still building self-confidence in another, like English on a job interview.
Confident and confidence in a sentence
Use the adjective after a linking verb. Use the noun after a determiner, or as the object of the sentence.
- I feel confident. (Not “I feel confidence,” unless you add a preposition: “I feel confidence in this plan.”)
- She is confident.
- She has confidence.
- He is building self-confidence.
- He is becoming more self-confident.
If a sentence needs a word after feel or is, start with confident. If the sentence needs a thing you can have, build, or lose, use confidence or self-confidence.
Is self-confidence hyphenated?
Yes. In American English the usual spelling is self-confidence with a hyphen. The adjective is self-confident, also hyphenated. You will see self confidence as two words in search boxes. On the page, keep the hyphen.
What self-confidence looks like in class
A clear example came from two students of mine, Amadou and Annet. I asked each of them if they would host a weekly English conversation group for our Pronunciation Pro member community.
They both said yes, even though they had never done it before.
Annet’s response was, “this is both exciting and nerve wracking!”
That is self-confidence. She knew the task was new. She knew it would stretch her. She also knew she could handle the nerves for the sake of growth.
The more you are willing to try, miss a sound, and stay kind to yourself, the more self-confident you become. Mistakes are part of that. See what “mistakes are proof you are trying” means.
How this shows up when you speak English
Skill confidence grows when you practice the same sounds on purpose. Use these 10 helpful tips for mastering English pronunciation. Self-confidence shows up when you still take the interview even if a word might slip. For that week, see how to improve English pronunciation for job interviews.
How are you doing with your self-confidence?
If you want a coach in your corner while you try the next hard thing, start here: https://pronunciationpro.com/trial/.
