"able to endure" versus "able to be endured"

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kingtrn

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Hello everybody,
When searching the definition for "tolerable", I ended up with the explanation "able to be endured".
Usually I find it familiar with "able to endure". So I'm quite confused.
I found no satisfying result when searching the difference in the Internet. Could you please distinguish them? Thank you very much.
 

Raymott

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"Tom finds the sun tolerable. The sun is tolerable to Tom. Tom can tolerate the sun."
"Tom is able to endure the sun. Tom finds the sun able to be endured."
"Able to be endured" is passive voice. "Able to endure" is active voice.

'Tolerable' doesn't mean 'able to endure'. Can you give an example of one of those instances when you found it meant that?
 
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kingtrn

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"Tom finds the sun tolerable. The sun is tolerable to Tom. Tom can tolerate the sun."
"Tom is able to endure the sun. Tom finds the sun able to be endured."
"Able to be endured" is passive mood. "Able to endure" is active mood.

'Tolerable' doesn't mean 'able to endure'. Can you give an example of one of those instances when you found it meant that?

Hello Raymott, thank you very much for the explanation.

I didn't said that "tolerable" means "able to endure", I means I usually hear people say "able to endure", and "able to be endured" sounds strange to me. Because it is already meant, kind of "suffering", I just didn't understand why there is an active and passive "suffering".

Now, if I understand correctly, they are both the same meaning, but use in different ways, right?

One more question:
Do they somehow mean as follow (because you mentioned "mood")?
"I am able to endure the sun" => Active mood, I decide to do that, to walk under the sun
I says: "The sun is able to be endured" => Passive mood, in the situation that I have to walk under the sun
 

Raymott

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Sorry, I meant passive and active voice. I'll change it. But the error doesn't change the message.

Active voice is when you do something.
Passive voice is when something is done.

You should research active and passive voice.
 

GoesStation

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This is a case where the passive voice is very unnatural. It's unlikely anyone would ever write the sun is able to be endured. Many natural uses of the passive voice exist; learners should study those and ignore the others.
 

Rover_KE

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