Allergic To: Standard Pattern
Allergic To: Standard Pattern records the directly documented construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced complement pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
Use “allergic to” for a substance that causes an allergic reaction, or informally for something a person strongly dislikes.
Key details
Choose the right form
| Context | Use | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| literal allergy meaning | allergic to + substance | Use “to” before the substance described as causing an allergic reaction. |
| informal strong-dislike meaning | allergic to + thing/activity | The same form can be used informally and figuratively for strong dislike. |
| deciding whether a real person has an allergy | outside this grammar page | Do not turn a language example into a diagnosis. |
Quick tests
Decision test
Are you completing “allergic” with the substance in the literal meaning, or with the target of an informal strong-dislike expression?
If yes: Use “allergic to.”
If no: If the question is whether a real symptom or exposure is an allergy, that requires medical assessment rather than a grammar rule.
Caveat: The literal and informal senses are both documented; the figurative use should not be mistaken for a clinical statement.
Examples
The form asks whether the patient is allergic to latex.
“To” introduces the substance named in the literal allergy construction.
The character says he is allergic to early meetings.
The sentence uses the documented informal strong-dislike sense rather than making a literal medical claim.
She wrote that she was allergic to shellfish.
A noun phrase can follow “to” in the literal construction.
Further guidance
Construction
Cambridge documents “allergic to” both for an allergy trigger and, informally, for a strong dislike of something.
Style Boundary
The informal sense is figurative and should not be confused with a literal medical allergy in contexts where that distinction matters.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- ALLERGIC | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary (opens in a new tab)Cambridge University Press & Assessment · Cambridge dictionary evidence for allergic to in literal medical use and informal strong-dislike use.