Impatient With: Standard Pattern
Impatient With: Standard Pattern records the directly documented construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced complement pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
Use “impatient with” when someone is easily annoyed by another person, behavior, delay, or repeated difficulty.
Key details
Choose the right form
| Meaning / situation | Form / construction | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| annoyed by a person, behavior, delay, or recurring difficulty | impatient with + person/thing | Use “impatient with.” |
| eager to perform an action | impatient to + verb | Use “to” for eagerness to act. |
| eager for an event or result | impatient for + noun | Use “for” when awaiting a desired change or event. |
Quick tests
Meaning / construction test
Does the complement name the person, behavior, or situation causing annoyance?
If yes: Use “impatient with.”
If no: If the meaning is eagerness, choose “impatient to …” or “impatient for …” according to the structure.
Caveat: The prepositions correspond to different meanings and complement types; do not reduce them to a single interchangeable pattern.
Examples
She grew impatient with the repeated delays.
“With” introduces the source of annoyance.
He was impatient with the slow process.
The process is what irritates him.
They were impatient to begin.
“To begin” expresses eagerness to act, a different pattern.
Further guidance
Construction
Use “impatient with” when someone is easily annoyed by another person, behavior, delay, or repeated difficulty.
Style Boundary
Cambridge also documents “impatient to” before an action and “impatient for” a desired change; those patterns express different meanings and are not treated as errors.
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.
- IMPATIENT | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary (opens in a new tab)Cambridge University Press & Assessment · Cambridge dictionary evidence for impatient with as a documented construction and its distinction from impatient to/for.