To Confide In

[Bobbert]

To Trust - Fiarse de / Confiar en

To Confide in?????????

I was trying to say the following sentence and felt I was understood when I tried to convey "to trust," but I got completely lost at the end of the sentence because I don't know how to say "to confide in" and the dictionaries don't really help.

We have known each other for a long time and
Nos conocemos desde hace mucho tiempo y

trust each other,
confiamos el uno en el otro,
nos fiamos el uno del otro,

but she still never confides anything in me
pero todavía

no me confía nada???
no confía nada en mí???
no confía nada a mí???

(meaning she never tells me her inner thoughts/secrets and trusts I won't tell anyone)

Also, since I am talking about friends that involve a male and a female, should it be
el uno en la otra
el uno de la otra

Please help me translate the sentence correctly.

[Tomisimo]

Hi Bobbert.

Concerning reciprocal statements like "el uno al otro", "unos a otros", "el uno del otro", etc., I have always heard these in masculine if you're talking about men or mixed genders. If you're talking about only women, I've heard "la una a la otra" or "unas a otras" etc.

I've never heard it mixed though, like "unos a otras", and I don't think that sounds right.

Now onto the translation...

"We have known each other for a long time and trust each other, but she still never confides anything in me."

How about one of these options?

"Tenemos mucho tiempo de conocernos y mucha confianza, y aun así, ..."

"... no me comparte sus secretos"
"... no tiene la confianza para decirme todo"
"... no se abre del todo conmigo"
"... no me cuenta todo"
"... no me confía nada" (this option that you had can be used like this)

Maybe a native Spanish speaker can help too. In this case, "confide" in English means "to share things that you would not tell anyone else."

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Adding to Tomísimo's explanation:

The collocation is "confiar en"; so we'd say: "confiamos uno en el otro" ("unos en los otros" in plural). This is the general formula when both people are masculine, and frequently between a man and a woman.
However, as there is more and more gender visibility, you may find more often:
- Confiamos (la) una en el otro (female - male)
- ... (el) uno en la otra (male - female)
And always, between feminine subjects: "confiamos (la) una en la otra"


As for:
Nos conocemos desde hace mucho tiempo y confiamos (el) uno en el otro, pero todavía no me confía nada.

-> The first "el" is not wrong, but it feels long, so we frequently omit it.
-> "Nos fiamos uno del otro" is an interesting construction. I would never use "fiarse de alguien" in a close relationship.
This verb is mostly used in negative sentences, and if I were to use it in a positive sentence, it would mean I don't have obvious reasons to mistrust someone, but I don't know them enough as to actually trust them with something important.
- ¿Ese amigo tuyo es de fiar? -> I don't know your friend, but I want to know he's honest enough.
- No me fío de los dueños de casinos. -> I have some reason to believe casino owners can't be trusted.
- A los clientes no se les engaña, porque se fían de uno. -> Clients don't have a close relationship with you, but you know they don't expect to be swindled by you.


The second part of the sentence:
- no confía nada en mí -> This contradicts the first part of the sentence. Either she trusts you or not. So this is not the correct collocation to imply her telling you important things.
- no confía nada a mí -> This construction doesn't make much sense. You may say "no me confía nada a mí", but this changes the meaning of the sentence. It would mean she doesn't let you take care of important business. If there weren't a context, "aún no me confía nada", could be interpreted this way too.
And only for reasons of style, we normally avoid repeating verbs in a sentence, so we prefer to change something. Unless you're repeating the verb on purpose, Tomísimo's alternatives are great.

[Bobbert]

Thank you for responding, Tomisimo and AngelicadeAlquezar.