Learn Hardcore French: Parmi nous, elle montre beaucoup de patience.

Parmi means among / amongst, in the sense of within a group of people or things.
In this sentence, parmi nous means among us / within our group (talking about her as a member of the group).

Entre also can translate as between / among, but:

entre is more concrete or spatial: entre nous deux = between the two of us.
parmi is used for being one of many in a group: parmi nous, parmi les élèves, parmi les invités, etc.

Here, because she is one person within a group, parmi nous is the natural choice. Entre nous would sound more like between us (two) or have the idiomatic sense “between ourselves / just between us” (a secret), which is not what the sentence means.

Could I say entre nous, elle montre beaucoup de patience instead of parmi nous?

Grammatically you can say entre nous, but it usually changes the nuance:

Parmi nous, elle montre beaucoup de patience = Within our group, she shows a lot of patience (compared to others, or as a general fact about her as part of the group).
Entre nous, elle montre beaucoup de patience is more likely to be understood as:
- Between us (two people), she shows a lot of patience, or
- Between ourselves (I’m telling you in confidence), she shows a lot of patience.

For the neutral idea among us, French speakers strongly prefer parmi nous here, not entre nous.

Why is it beaucoup de patience and not beaucoup la patience or beaucoup de la patience?

After quantifiers like beaucoup, peu, assez, trop, moins, French always uses de (or d’) directly before the noun, without an article:

beaucoup de patience
peu de temps
trop de travail
assez d’argent

So:

✗ beaucoup la patience – wrong
✗ beaucoup de la patience – wrong in standard French
✓ beaucoup de patience – correct

The article (like la, de la, les) disappears after beaucoup de.

Could I say Elle a beaucoup de patience instead of elle montre beaucoup de patience?

Yes, Elle a beaucoup de patience is perfectly correct and very natural.

The nuance:

Elle a beaucoup de patience = She has a lot of patience (as a personal quality).
Elle montre beaucoup de patience = She shows / demonstrates a lot of patience (you can see it in her behavior).

In many contexts, both are possible, but elle a beaucoup de patience talks more about her character; elle montre beaucoup de patience emphasizes what we observe her doing.

Can parmi nous go at the end of the sentence, like Elle montre beaucoup de patience parmi nous?

Yes, Elle montre beaucoup de patience parmi nous is grammatically correct.

Word order differences:

Parmi nous, elle montre beaucoup de patience.
- Emphasizes among us first; stylistically a bit more formal or literary.
Elle montre beaucoup de patience parmi nous.
- More neutral word order; the emphasis is more on what she shows, and parmi nous is simply added at the end.

Both are fine; it’s mainly a matter of style and emphasis.

Why is it elle montre and not something like elle montre beaucoup de patiente with an -e?

Patience is a noun, not an adjective, and it is spelled patience (with -ence) for both genders and all forms.

patience = noun (feminine)
patient / patiente = adjective (and also the noun for a medical patient)

So:

Elle montre beaucoup de patience. – She shows a lot of patience. (noun)
Elle est très patiente. – She is very patient. (adjective)

Writing patiente in this sentence would be incorrect, because you need the noun patience after beaucoup de.

Is patience feminine? Does anything have to agree with it here?

Yes, patience is a feminine noun: la patience.

In beaucoup de patience, there is:

no article (de, not de la),
no adjective modifying patience.

So nothing visibly changes for gender or number in this phrase. The gender matters for other contexts, for example:

Sa patience est incroyable. – Sa agrees in gender with patience (feminine).
Toute sa patience – toute is feminine singular, agreeing with patience.

Why do we need de after beaucoup? Could we say elle montre beaucoup patience?

You must use de after beaucoup when it’s followed by a noun:

beaucoup de patience
beaucoup de travail
beaucoup d’idées

✗ Beaucoup patience is incorrect in standard French.
The structure is always beaucoup de + noun (or beaucoup d’ + noun if the noun starts with a vowel or mute h).

If we remove beaucoup, do we still need de: can we say Elle montre patience?

Without a quantifier like beaucoup, a French noun almost always needs some kind of determiner (article, possessive, etc.).

So you would say:

Elle montre de la patience. – She shows patience / some patience.
Elle montre une grande patience. – She shows great patience.
Elle montre sa patience.

✗ Elle montre patience is incorrect in normal French; patience needs a determiner.

Why use montrer? Could we also say Elle fait preuve de patience?

Yes, Elle fait preuve de patience is very natural and even a bit more idiomatic than Elle montre beaucoup de patience.

Nuances:

Elle montre beaucoup de patience.
- Very clear, straightforward: she shows a lot of patience.
Elle fait preuve de patience.
- Slightly more formal or written style; literally “she shows proof of patience”.

All of these are acceptable, with small stylistic differences:

Elle a beaucoup de patience.
Elle montre beaucoup de patience.
Elle fait preuve de beaucoup de patience.

Does parmi nous mean she is patient towards us or just that she is patient compared to others in the group?

Parmi nous is ambiguous between two close ideas, and context decides:

She is part of our group, and within our group (compared to the others), she shows a lot of patience.
She shows a lot of patience when dealing with us, i.e. in her behavior with members of the group.

If you specifically want towards us, French often uses avec or envers:

Avec nous, elle montre beaucoup de patience. – With us, she shows a lot of patience.
Envers nous, elle montre beaucoup de patience. – Towards us, she shows a lot of patience.

Parmi nous focuses more on “within the group / among us” than on direction like towards.

How do you pronounce parmi, and is there a liaison with nous?

Parmi is pronounced roughly [par-mee]:

par- like par in Paris (but with a French r)
-mi like mee

In parmi nous, there is no liaison between parmi and nous. You pronounce:

parmi = [par-mi]
nous = [nu]

So: [par-mi nu], with a small pause; you do not say anything like [par-mi-z-nu].

Could we say Elle est très patiente parmi nous instead? How does that compare?

Yes, Elle est très patiente parmi nous is grammatically correct.

Comparison:

Elle montre beaucoup de patience parmi nous.
- Focus on what she does: she shows/demonstrates patience.
Elle est très patiente parmi nous.
- Focus on what she is: she is very patient (as a trait), within our group.

Both sentences are natural; they just use different structures (verb + noun vs être + adjective) to describe roughly the same quality.