Put up with means to tolerate something unpleasant or accept a situation even though it annoys you. People often say it about noise, someone's behaviour or inconveniences they have to live with.
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put up with + noun/-ing; can't put up with + something
- I don't know how she puts up with her noisy neighbours every night.
- We had to put up with delays at the airport for six hours.
- He won't put up with being spoken to like that.
What changed
First versionI can't put it up with anymore.
RevisionI can't put up with it anymore.
Put up with has three parts, and a pronoun (it, him, this) only ever goes after the whole phrase: put up with it. The rule for put it up (to put a poster or shelf up on a wall), where the pronoun goes between the verb and the particle, doesn't apply here. So put it up with is incorrect.
Put up with someone means to tolerate a person, while put someone up means to let them stay at your place for a night or two: My aunt put me up when I first moved to London. Compare: I can't put up with my cousin — I can't stand him; I can't put my cousin up — I have nowhere to let him stay.
Your turn
My sister talks on the phone all night long, and honestly, I can't ___ any more.
Show the answer
put up with it — Put up with can't be split, so the pronoun it goes after the whole phrase: put up with it. In put it up with, the pronoun has been inserted in the wrong place — that's not how the phrase is said.
Describe something you have to tolerate regularly — at work, at home or in daily life. Say what exactly bothers you and how long it's been going on.
I have to take two packed trains to work every morning, and I've been putting up with it for almost three years.
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