ible and able suffixes

1. Do you know your –ibles from your
-ables?
Suffixes (word endings) and prefixes (word beginnings) can
sound the same in English, causing no end of puzzlement when
it comes to spelling.

2. For instance, does independent end with -ent or
–ant?
• But don’t despair! Help is at hand:
• We’re going to look at the suffixes –able and -ible and offer some spelling
tips to help you make the right choice.

3. –able and –ible. They sound very similar and
they share a main meaning: ‘able to be’:
readable able to be read; easy to read
eatable able to be eaten; fit to be
consumed as food
audible able to be heard
collapsible able to be folded into a small
space
–able and –ible. They sound very similar when you say them and they share a main meaning, which is ‘able to be’:

4. Here are some tips for remembering which
suffix to use. –able words
• Tip 1:
• This tip is based on sheer weight of numbers, there are hundreds of words
spelled with the suffix -able
• Therefore if you choose -able, you’re more likely to be correct!

5. -able words
• Tip 2:
• If the root word is a complete word in itself, then the ending is nearly always
-able.
• A simple test is to take away the suffix – does the word still exist as an
English word?

6. For example:
-able or –ible adjective Word remaining when ending is
removed?
readable ✓ read
acceptable ✓ accept
treatable ✓ treat
Changeable ✓ change
dependable ✓ depend
audible ✗ aud
edible ✗ ed
horrible ✗ horr
tangible ✗ tang
feasible ✗ feas

7. -ible words
• Tip 1:
accessible eligible invincible responsible
audible expressible legible reversible
collapsible feasible negligible risible
contemptible flexible ostensible suggestible
convertible gullible perceptible susceptible
digestible horrible permissible tangible
divisible incredible plausible terrible
you only need to know a limited set of -ible words (yay!). Here are
some of the most common ones:

8. -ible words
• Tip 2:
• This is related to Tip two for –able. As you can see from the table, when a
word ends in -ible, the main part is much less likely to be a recognizable word
in English
• for example ‘terr’ is not a word.

9. Remember, it’s frustrating but-
• As always with grammar, there are exceptions to these tips (I know, I know):
• accessible, suggestible, collapsible, flexible, and digestible.
• Use these tips as a guide and hopefully this will help answer the
• question; is the correct suffix –able or –ible?