believe you me

Syllables: be·lieve you meUK/bɪˈliːv juː ˈmiː/US/bɪˈliv ju ˈmi/

believe you me phrase: an emphatic form of believe me: you (the subject) had better believe me (the speaker).

Phrase

believe you me

(idiomatic) An emphatic form of believe me: you (the subject) had better believe me (the speaker).
- Well, sir, believe you me, I'll give that lassy as good a strapping as ever she got when she comes back.1841, Caesar Otway, Sketches in Erris and Tyrawly, by the author of 'Sketches in Ireland ..., page 185
- But many a time, believe you me, I bought a rabbit from you, when I could put something else in the pot...1870, Garland, In re Garland, page 94

Balzac stands for Paris, believe you me.1877, Justin McCarthy, Miss Misanthrope: A Novel, page 21:
But, Sandy lad, believe you me, I loe ye like a brither!1887, Alexander Wardrop, Mid-Cauther Fair: A Dramatic Pastoral : with Other Poems, Songs, and Prose, page 113:
"Believe you me," said Meldon, " she'll know how to manage him."1912, George A. Birmingham, The Simpkins Plot, page 75:

Derived from an archaic English sentence structure. Compare I kid you not.

What does believe you me mean?: Believe you me means an emphatic form of believe me: you (the subject) had better believe me (the speaker).
How do you use believe you me in a sentence?: Balzac stands for Paris, believe you me.
What part of speech is believe you me?: Believe you me is a phrase.
How do you pronounce believe you me?: Believe you me is pronounced /bɪˈliːv juː ˈmiː/ (UK).

Adapted from Wiktionary: believe you me (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-believe you me.ogg.

Cite this entry: “believe you me.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/believe_you_me. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.