Joanne Rudling published -ible or -able? in her Spellingblog in mid November. She draws our attention to the fact that -ible, -able are common spelling suffixes for adjectives and they usually sound the same.
And she also gives us some guidelines to help us use them correctly.
- There are more words ending in -able (about 900) than -ible (less than 200).
- Knowing the history of -ible, -able can help:
A general rule is if we take away the suffix (-able) we are usually left with a root word:
understandable = understand + able,
enjoyable = enjoy + able,
comfortable = comfort + able,
dependable = depend + able
If the root word ends in 'e' then usually we drop the 'e' value + able = valuable, desire + able = desirable, move + able = movable.
-ible words come from Latin. There are no new Latin words: terrible, horrible, incredible, sensible, edible, accessible, flexible, legible.
Drop by Joanne Rudling's blog, Spellingblog, to find out all the details about -ible, -able:
- A table of common words with -ible, -able
- A podcast to hear the pronunciation of these words.
- A spelling test with -ible, -able with answers
