words ending in ‘ibly’ and ‘ably’
We already looked at the spelling rules for ‘ible’ and ‘able’
Now we are going to use some of our knowledge to learn about words with ‘ibly’ and ‘ably’.
Remember – ible look for a root word.
Most words ending in -ible DON’T have an obvious root word:
horr + ible = horrible
But sometimes we can hear an obvious root word – there are always exceptions to the rule:
sense + ible = sensible response + ible = responsible
Did you notice that we have to drop the e before we add -ible?
Most words ending in –able DO have an obvious root word:
Fashion + able – fashionable
We can add ‘able’to some root words without making any changes to them:
consider + able = considerable
BUT…
Words that end in e or y are a bit trickier,
Sometimes we drop the final e before adding –able:
adore + able = adorable
And sometimes, if a word ends in a consonant + y, we swap the y for an i before adding –able: envy + able = enviable
The ‘ably/-ibly’ patterns change adjectives ending in -able/-ible into adverbs.
Adjective = describing word – comfortable
Adverb = a word that describes a verb (doing word) – comfortably
If the root word ends in ‘able’, we use ‘ably’. If the root word ends in –ible, we use –ibly
To turn ‘ible’ and ‘able’ adjectives into adverbs, we replace the -le ending of the adjective with -ly.
comfortable comfortably
horrible horribly
Words to learn:
adorably comfortably Add your two extra words here…
incredibly impossibly *
visibly considerably *
sensibly terribly
understandably predictably
Remember to find the definitions for these words and even challenge yourself to find some of your own which match the same rule.
