Words ending -able and -ible
Two common endings are -able and -ible. But how can you tell which one to use?The difficulty is that we pronounce the leading vowels very similarly: we make a sort of -ugh- sound and you can't hear whether it is -a- or-i- .There are no simple rules to follow.
But here are three tips that you may find useful:
- If the base word is not altered in any way then add -able.
This works most of the time:
understand becomes understandable,
predict becomes predictable,
comfort becomes comfortable, ..... and so on.
- There are many more words ending -able than -ible.
I counted 900 -able words and 200 -ible words.
So, if you make a guess and choose -able
you're probably right 4 out of 5 times! - The best advice I can give you is to learn the most common
-ible
words and use -able for the rest.
Very many of the -ible words are so rare that you'll never use them.
Have you ever written fungible for instance?
| edible: | fit for eating |
| credible: | can be believed |
| audible: | can be heard |
| legible: | easy to read |
| negligible: | of no importance |
| terrible: | causing terror |
| horrible: | awful |
| feasible: | can be done |
| visible: | can be seen |
| sensible: | reasonable |
| responsible: | trustworthy |
| possible: | liable to happen |
| digestible: | can be digested |
| flexible: | easily bent |
| permissible: | allowable |
| compatible: | suitable |
| Many of them have negative forms by adding in-, il-, ir-,
or im- . For example: inedible, illegible, irresponsible, impossible. Now try a relevant wordsearch and a hangman game or a
crossword.
|
Roger Smith
Focus words
inedible
audible
terrible
responsible
incompatible
permissible
sensible
feasible
inflexible
illegible