Patient With: Standard Pattern
Patient With: Standard Pattern records a directly documented English construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced pattern rather than turning one attested complement into a universal prohibition.
Use “patient with” for calmly tolerating a person, behavior, difficulty, or delay without becoming annoyed.
Key details
Choose the right form
| Meaning / situation | Form / construction | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| calmly tolerating a person | patient with + person | Use “patient with” before the person being tolerated. |
| calmly tolerating behavior, a difficulty, or a delay | patient with + thing/situation | Use the same attested construction for the situation or difficulty. |
| different meaning of “patient” | context-dependent | Do not turn this collocation into a universal complement rule for every use of the word. |
Quick tests
Meaning / construction test
Are you using adjective “patient” to mean able to tolerate someone or something calmly?
If yes: Use “patient with” plus the person, behavior, difficulty, or delay.
If no: If “patient” has another grammatical role or meaning, use the construction required by that context.
Caveat: The reviewed evidence establishes “patient with someone/something” as a standard collocation. It does not imply that every occurrence of “patient” must be followed by “with.”
Examples
Please be patient with the new employee.
The “with” phrase names the person who needs tolerance.
You will need to be patient with the slow connection.
The construction can also name a difficulty or delay.
The doctor spoke with a patient.
Here “patient” is a noun, so this is not the adjective-plus-“with” pattern.
Further guidance
Construction
Use “patient with” for calmly tolerating a person, behavior, difficulty, or delay without becoming annoyed.
Style Boundary
Cambridge lists “patient with someone/something” as a collocation; this page stays within that attested construction.
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.
- PATIENT WITH SOMEONE/SOMETHING — Cambridge Dictionary (opens in a new tab)Cambridge University Press · Direct Cambridge collocation evidence for patient with someone or something.