bear with — be patient with
phrasal verbB1IELTS 5+neutralcommon
to stay patient and not get annoyed while someone is doing something slowly or making mistakes.
Say it like a native
Textbook Kindly exercise patience while I retrieve the file.
Native Bear with me a sec while I find it.
'Exercise patience while I retrieve' is over-formal; 'bear with me' is the natural request.
Pattern: bear with + someone
In use
- Could you please bear with me while I find your file?daily life
- In my last job, I often had to ask customers to bear with me when our system was down.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ Please bear with my late reply.
✓ Please bear with me — sorry for the late reply.
'Bear with' takes a person ('bear with me'), not a thing.
Common collocations
bear with + person— me, us, me a moment, thanks for
Don't confuse it
Not the same as 'put up with', which means to tolerate something unpleasant over time.