>忍受 = to endure/ to stand (put up with) Your question is about the difference between two particles '住' and '了'; It also involve the usage one of the two potential particles '得' and '不' (see https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/21360/how-to-determine-the-part-of-speech-tags-of-words-succeeding-%e4%b8%8d-like-these/21363#21363) >住 as a particles denotes a verb is in a continuous state: >忍受住 = to endure (continuously) >忍受得住 = able to endure (continuously) >忍受不住 = unable to endure (continuously) ~ 了 as a particles denotes a verb is completed >忍受了 = have endured >忍受得了 = able to endure (successfully) >忍受不了 = unable to endure (successfully)