Spelling it Rightends
8
Focus
words
inedible
audible
terrible
responsible
incompatible
permissible
sensible
feasible
inflexible
illegible
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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 —> understandable,
predict —> predictable, comfort —> 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? Here are the most common
-ible words:
| 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 memorize the focus words. Then try a relevant wordsearch and a hangman game or a crossword.
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