Learn Hardcore Russian: Моя жена рада и довольна, когда видит, что дети здоровы. - My wife is happy and satisfied when she sees that the children are healthy.

Рада and довольна are short-form adjectives. They are very common in Russian when describing someone’s temporary emotional state or condition in a predicative way (after the noun):

жена рада = the wife is glad
жена довольна = the wife is pleased / satisfied

Short forms:

only appear in the predicate (after the verb / subject),
don’t directly modify a noun before it.

Long forms like радостная and довольная are full adjectives, used mainly to describe a noun as a characteristic:

радостная жена = a joyful / cheerful wife (as a type of wife, more permanent quality)
довольная жена = a contented wife

You could say Моя жена радостная и довольная, but that sounds more like a general character trait, not “she is glad and satisfied at this moment when she sees that the children are healthy.”

So in this sentence, short forms рада and довольна are more natural.

Why do рада and довольна end in -а, not -ый or -ый/-ой etc.?

They agree with жена, which is feminine singular.

Adjectives and short-form adjectives in Russian must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe:

masculine: рад, доволен (Я рад, Я доволен)
feminine: рада, довольна (Моя жена рада и довольна)
neuter: раду, довольно (Моё сердце радо)
plural: рады, довольны (Мы рады и довольны)

Here, жена is feminine singular, so the correct short forms are рада and довольна.

What is the difference in meaning between рада and довольна?

They are close but not identical:

рада ≈ “glad”, “happy about something happening”.
Focus: emotional reaction to an event.
Example: Я рада, что ты пришёл. – I’m glad you came.
довольна ≈ “pleased”, “satisfied”, “content”.
Focus: satisfaction with a situation or result.
Example: Я довольна своей работой. – I’m satisfied with my job.

Putting them together (рада и довольна) emphasizes both aspects:

she feels glad emotionally,
and she is satisfied / content with the situation.

It’s a natural-sounding pair in Russian, a bit like “she is happy and content” in English.

Why is it когда видит, not когда увидит?

The verb видит is the imperfective present tense of видеть (“to see”).

когда видит here means “when(ever) she sees”, describing a repeated / habitual situation.
It’s like English: “She is happy when she sees that the children are healthy.” (every time, in general)

If you used увидит (perfective future):

Моя жена будет рада, когда увидит, что дети здоровы.
→ “My wife will be happy when she sees (at that moment) that the children are healthy.”

So:

когда видит = general rule, repeated action.
когда увидит = one specific future moment of seeing.

Why is there no она in когда видит? Shouldn’t it be когда она видит?

Russian often omits subject pronouns (я, ты, он, она, мы, вы, они) when the subject is clear from context and from the verb ending.

Here, we already know the subject is моя жена, and видит is 3rd person singular. So когда видит is fully understandable as “when she sees”.

You can say когда она видит, and it is also correct. The difference:

когда видит – a bit more compact, neutral.
когда она видит – slightly more explicit; you might use it for contrast (e.g. contrasting her with someone else), or just stylistically.

In everyday speech, dropping она like this is very common.

Why is there a comma before когда: рада и довольна, когда видит…?

In Russian punctuation, когда often introduces a subordinate clause of time (a “when”-clause). Subordinate clauses are usually separated by a comma from the main clause.

Here:

Main clause: Моя жена рада и довольна
Subordinate clause: когда видит, что дети здоровы

The comma before когда marks the boundary between those two clauses, just like in English:

“My wife is happy and content, when she sees that the children are healthy.”

Why do we use что in видит, что дети здоровы?

Here что functions as a subordinating conjunction, similar to English “that” in sentences like:

“She sees that the children are healthy.”

The structure is:

видит, что … = “sees that …”

This is a very common pattern:

Я знаю, что он дома. – I know that he is at home.
Я слышу, что они пришли. – I hear that they have arrived.

So что is not a question word here; it simply connects the verb видит with the clause дети здоровы.

Why is it дети здоровы, not дети здоровые?

Здоровы is another short-form adjective, like рада and довольна. Short forms are very common in predicate position (after the subject) when stating a condition or temporary state:

дети здоровы = the children are healthy (state)
дети больны = the children are ill

The long-form здоровые is a full adjective. It’s usually used:

before a noun: здоровые дети = healthy children (describing what kind of children),
or sometimes after a noun if you’re characterizing them, but дети здоровые sounds more like “they are children who are healthy (as a quality)” rather than simply stating their current health status.

In this sentence, we are stating their current state, so the short form здоровы is the natural choice.

Why is здоровы spelled with -ы, not -ые?

Because здоровы here is the short plural form of the adjective здоровый.

Long plural: здоровые (здоровЫЕ)
Short plural: здоровы (здоровЫ)

Short adjectives have their own endings, different from the long forms. For plural, the typical short ending is -ы or -и:

они здоровы – they are healthy
они больны – they are ill
они рады – they are glad
они довольны – they are satisfied

So здоровые would be wrong here because it’s the long form; здоровы is the correct short form in the predicate.

Can we say здоровы дети instead of дети здоровы? Does the word order change the meaning?

Both orders are grammatically correct, but the nuance is slightly different:

Дети здоровы. – Neutral statement: “The children are healthy.”
Здоровы дети. – A bit more emphatic / expressive, like “The children are healthy” (maybe as a contrast: at least the children are healthy).

In the subordinate clause что дети здоровы, the most neutral, typical order after что is subject + predicate:

что дети здоровы – standard, neutral.

You could say что здоровы дети in some contexts for emphasis, but it would sound more poetic or marked. In ordinary speech and writing, что дети здоровы is preferred.

Is Моя жена рада и довольна, когда видит, что дети здоровы the same as saying “My wife is happy when she sees that the children are healthy”? Is anything “missing” in Russian?

The Russian sentence is indeed very close in meaning to “My wife is happy when she sees that the children are healthy”, and nothing important is missing.

Points that may feel “missing” to an English speaker are actually normal Russian grammar:

No “to be” in the present: жена рада instead of “жена есть рада”.
No subject pronoun она before видит.
Use of short-form adjectives (рада, довольна, здоровы) instead of full adjectives.

All of these are completely standard in Russian, and the sentence is natural and complete as it stands.

How should I pronounce / stress the words довольна and здоровы?

Stress is important in Russian, and it isn’t always predictable from spelling.

довольна – stress on -о-: дово́льна
IPA: [dɐˈvolʲnə]
здоровы – stress on -о-: здоро́вы
IPA: [z̪dɐˈrovɨ]

For the whole sentence, the main stressed syllables are:

Моя́ жена́ ра́да и дово́льна, когдá ви́дит, что де́ти здоро́вы.

Practicing the stress pattern will make your pronunciation sound much more natural.