Learn Hardcore Russian: Моя супруга любит тихий вечер дома.

жена – the neutral, everyday word for wife.
- Common in normal conversation.
- E.g. Это моя жена. – This is my wife.
супруга – more formal, polite, or official.
- Often used in formal speech, documents, public speaking, or when you want to sound respectful or slightly elevated.
- E.g. Моя супруга работает врачом. – My spouse/wife works as a doctor.

In the sentence Моя супруга любит тихий вечер дома, the tone is slightly more elegant or formal than if it were Моя жена любит тихий вечер дома. Both are correct.

Why is it любит, not нравится for “likes”?

Russian has two common ways to express “to like”:

любить
- direct object in the accusative
- Structure: [someone] любит [something]
- E.g. Моя супруга любит тихий вечер.
- Closer to “to love / to be fond of / to like in general”.
- Used for stable preferences and stronger liking.
нравиться
- dative person
- Structure: [something] нравится [to someone (DAT)]
- E.g. Тихий вечер дома нравится моей супруге.
- Literally: A quiet evening at home is pleasing to my wife.

In the original sentence, Моя супруга любит тихий вечер дома, the grammar is:

Моя супруга – subject (NOM)
любит – verb
тихий вечер – direct object (ACC)
дома – “at home” (adverbial)

You could also say Тихий вечер дома нравится моей супруге, but that changes the word order/structure and sounds a bit more neutral or descriptive, less direct.

What case are тихий вечер in, and why do they look like nominative?

The verb любить takes a direct object in the accusative case.

вечер is a masculine inanimate noun.
For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative form is identical to the nominative.

So:

Nominative: тихий вечер – quiet evening
Accusative: тихий вечер – quiet evening (same form)

If the noun were animate masculine, we would see a difference:

Nominative: тихий студент – a quiet (male) student
Accusative: тихого студента – (I see) a quiet (male) student

Here, тихий вечер is accusative, even though it looks like nominative.

Why is тихий вечер singular, when in English we often say “quiet evenings at home” (plural)?

Russian often uses the singular to talk about repeated or habitual situations, where English naturally uses the plural.

Моя супруга любит тихий вечер дома.
Literally: My wife likes a quiet evening at home.
Meaning in context: She likes having quiet evenings at home (in general).

This is very natural in Russian. You only really need the plural (тихие вечера) if you want to emphasize many evenings or contrast with something else:

Она предпочитает тихие вечера дома, а не шумные вечеринки.
She prefers quiet evenings at home rather than loud parties.

Why is it дома and not в доме for “at home”?

дома (stress on the first syllable: дОма) is an adverb-like form meaning “at home”. It does not need a preposition.

дома – at home (general, your home as a place where you live)
в доме – in the house, inside a house (more literal, inside the building)

In your sentence:

тихий вечер дома – a quiet evening at home (the classic set phrase)
тихий вечер в доме – a quiet evening in the house (sounds more physical/locational, and for this meaning it’s less idiomatic)

For the everyday idea of “a quiet evening at home”, Russians normally say тихий вечер дома, not в доме.

What exactly is the function of дома in this sentence (grammatically)?

In Моя супруга любит тихий вечер дома, дома functions as an adverbial modifier of place – it tells us where the quiet evening is spent.

You can think of it as:

любит [что?] – тихий вечер
какой/где? – дома (quiet evening where? → at home)

So grammatically, дома here behaves like an adverb, even though historically it comes from a case form of дом.

Can I change the word order, like Моя супруга любит дома тихий вечер?

Russian word order is relatively flexible, but not all permutations sound natural.

Natural options:

Моя супруга любит тихий вечер дома.
Neutral, standard word order.
Моя супруга любит тихие вечера дома.
Same idea, but with a plural noun.

More marked but still possible:

Тихий вечер дома любит моя супруга.
Strongly emphasizes “a quiet evening at home” (contrastive, poetic, or stylistic).

Your version:

Моя супруга любит дома тихий вечер. – grammatically possible, but sounds odd and slightly clumsy. дома usually goes right after вечер in this set phrase: тихий вечер дома.

So the most natural for normal speech is the original: Моя супруга любит тихий вечер дома.

How would this sentence change if I used жена instead of супруга?

You would get:

Моя жена любит тихий вечер дома.

Grammatically, everything is the same:

моя – still feminine nominative singular (it matches жена, which is also feminine)
жена – subject
любит тихий вечер дома – predicate and objects/modifiers are unchanged

The difference is only in style:

Моя супруга любит тихий вечер дома.
More formal, polite, or slightly elevated.
Моя жена любит тихий вечер дома.
Neutral, everyday, what you’d most likely hear in casual conversation.

How do I pronounce each word correctly, especially the stress?

Here are the standard pronunciations with stressed syllables in capitals:

Моя – ma‑YA
супруга – su‑PRU‑ga (stress on У)
любит – LYU‑bit
тихий – TEE‑khiy
вечер – VYE‑cher
дома (meaning “at home”) – DO‑ma (stress on О)

Be careful with дома:

дОма – at home (your word here)
домА – houses (plural, different meaning and different stress)

Putting it together:
ma‑YA su‑PRU‑ga LYU‑bit TEE‑khiy VYE‑cher DO‑ma.

Is there a more descriptive way to say “likes spending a quiet evening at home”?

Yes, a very natural expanded version is:

Моя супруга любит проводить тихие вечера дома.

Breakdown:

проводить – to spend (time)
тихие вечера – quiet evenings (plural)
дома – at home

This version makes the idea of spending time explicit and uses the plural вечера, which is close to the English “quiet evenings at home”. The original sentence is slightly shorter and more general, but both are correct and idiomatic.