Breakdown of Терпимая супруга спокойно слушает переживания мужа, даже когда он устал.
Questions & Answers about Терпимая супруга спокойно слушает переживания мужа, даже когда он устал.
Both adjectives are related to the idea of tolerance/patience, but they’re not fully interchangeable.
терпеливый / терпеливая
- Basic meaning: patient, able to wait or endure difficulties calmly.
- Typical collocations:
- терпеливый человек – a patient person
- терпеливый учитель – a patient teacher
- This is the default, very common word for “patient” in the character/temper sense.
терпимый / терпимая
- Main meaning in modern Russian: tolerant, accepting of other people’s behavior, opinions, or shortcomings.
- терпимый к чужим слабостям – tolerant of others’ weaknesses
- Secondary meaning: bearable, not too bad (about conditions, pain, quality, etc.).
- терпимая боль – bearable pain
- терпимое качество – acceptable quality
- Main meaning in modern Russian: tolerant, accepting of other people’s behavior, opinions, or shortcomings.
In the sentence терпимая супруга, it most likely means “tolerant wife”, i.e. she tolerates her husband’s emotional complaints. If you wanted to emphasize her general patience as a character trait, терпеливая супруга would be more neutral and common.
So:
- терпеливая супруга – patient wife (standard character trait)
- терпимая супруга – tolerant / indulgent wife, more about what she’s willing to put up with