How is 我简直不敢相信！ translated as “I can't believe it!”

Question

I found this expression the other day :

我简直不敢相信！

I failed to get what it means and looked for its meaning on the Google translate and it told me that the meaning of this sentence is : "I can't believe it". I didn't feel sure thus trying other translation machines but the result is the same, they all told me that "我简直不敢相信！" means "I can't believe it".

The question is... I don't get it how that sentence means "I can't believe it". Especially the "(不)敢" part. What does it have anything to do with "I can't believe it"?

Also, why is it not written as "我不能相信它/这个"?

Answer 1

我簡直不敢相信 translates literally to I simply don’t dare to believe [it]. You can translate this to English using I can’t believe it!, with an exclamation mark at the end to capture the mood. You say this when something outrageous or ridiculous has happened.

我不能相信 sounds like I’m unable to believe [it], and doesn’t really capture the same mood. You may say this if you’re refusing to believe something, maybe because of lack of evidence.

Answer 2

简直不敢相信 in Chinese sounds like something is hard to believe. The synonym could be: 难以置信.

There is another similar phrase 你敢信吗？，meaning Do you truly believe it? implying something is so incredible it's hard to believe it's true.