Year 6 – Words Ending in ible and able

 

 

 

 

 

 

We learnt three important facts today about the suffixes ible and able:

1. Most words ending in –ible don’t have an obvious root word:

vis + ible = visible

terr + ible = terrible

2. Most words ending in –able do have an obvious root word:

consider + able = considerable

reason + able = reasonable

3. More words end in –able than – ible.

 

These facts can help you to work out whether to use –ible or –able.

 

A root word is what is left when any prefixes and suffixes have been removed and it makes sense on its own.

uncomfortable       un + comfort + able

Sometimes we cannot see or hear a complete root word when prefixes and suffixes have been removed, for example:

impossible                       im + poss + ible

The root is from the Latin word possibilis, which means ‘that can be done’, so it doesn’t have a whole English root word.

 

If you have a whole root word left when you take away the ending, the chances are quite high that the ending should be –able.

dependable

comfortable

understandable

 

But beware! There are some words that don’t follow the pattern.

The root words:

resist

access

response

have the ending –ible:

resistible  

accessible