Suffixes -ible and -able Word Search

Both -ible and -able mean “able to be” — VISIBLE is able to be seen, READABLE is able to be read, EDIBLE is able to be eaten. The meaning is identical. The spelling is the problem. Which words use -ible and which use -able? There is a loose rule worth knowing, and a lot of visual memory worth building.

This word search contains seven -ible words and eight -able words, designed for Year 5 and Year 6 pupils, and for fourth and fifth grade readers in the US. Larger grid, words left-to-right and top-to-bottom only.

POSSIBLE · TERRIBLE · HORRIBLE · VISIBLE · SENSIBLE · FLEXIBLE · EDIBLE · ADORABLE · ENJOYABLE · VALUABLE · SUITABLE · RELIABLE · READABLE · CAPABLE · PORTABLE

A loose pattern and a lot of memory

The rough guide: if the root word is a complete English word, use -able. ENJOY → ENJOYABLE, READ → READABLE, SUIT → SUITABLE, ADORE → ADORABLE (drop the E first — the S33 rule still applies). If the root word isn’t a standalone English word, use -ible. POSSIBLE (POSS isn’t a word), TERRIBLE (TERR isn’t), HORRIBLE (HORR isn’t), EDIBLE (ED isn’t). The pattern works about 70% of the time — enough to be useful, not enough to trust blindly.

A few words in this grid follow the rule beautifully: VISIBLE (from VIS — the Latin root from S60, not a standalone English word, so -ible). FLEXIBLE (FLEX, debatable — you could go either way, and history settled on -ible). PORTABLE (from PORT — the Latin root from S59, but PORT IS a standalone English word in modern use, so -able). The rule is a starting point; visual familiarity finishes the job. Teach -able as the default (“when in doubt, try -able”) and treat the -ible words as a list to learn — a far smaller list than children fear.

Five words to compare

1. READABLE follows the rule perfectly. READ is a word; -able attaches. Ask your child what’s the most readable book they own — the one they find easiest. The word names a property of writing.
2. VISIBLE uses VIS from S60. VIS is Latin for see, not a standalone English word, so -ible. Visible meets the rule, and the root from a previous puzzle does the heavy lifting. Old learning in a new costume.
3. POSSIBLE has no English root. “Poss” isn’t a word, so -ible. Tell your child: when in doubt, ask whether the base is a real English word. If yes, try -able; if no, try -ible. The check is portable.
4. EDIBLE means eatable. Both words exist — EATABLE is the modern English coinage, EDIBLE is the Latin-rooted one (ED- from “edere”, to eat). They mean the same thing, with EDIBLE being more formal. A word with a twin — and a small lesson in how Latin and English coexist.
5. ADORABLE dropped its E. ADORE → ADORABLE. The drop-the-E rule from S33 fires here too: vowel suffix arrives, silent E retires. Every rule the series taught is still on duty.

Three ways to teach -able as the default

As a base-test starter. Write twelve mystery -ble words on the board — some -ible, some -able, some made-up — and the class applies the base test for each. ENJOY is a word, so ENJOY + able. POSS isn’t a word, so POSS + ible. INVENT is a word (so INVENTable… but actually it’s INVENT + IVE — a different suffix, not in this puzzle). The test works most of the time; the words where it doesn’t are the ones worth listing.

As an -ible list in pairs. Pairs collect all the -ible words from the grid: POSSIBLE, TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, VISIBLE, SENSIBLE, FLEXIBLE, EDIBLE. Seven words. Then they try to think of others (INVINCIBLE, AUDIBLE, INCREDIBLE, IMPOSSIBLE, RESPONSIBLE). The list of common -ible words is short — maybe fifteen to twenty words across all of upper-primary English. Treating them as a closed set makes them memorisable; treating them as exceptions to be guessed makes them a nightmare.

One-to-one at home. For parents teaching at home, run a kitchen “edible test”: your child names ten objects in the room and decides whether each is EDIBLE. The toaster? Not edible (and write that down with the -ible). The apple? Edible. The chair? Not edible. Then list other “-able to be” descriptions of those objects: the apple is also PORTABLE and SUITABLE for lunch; the chair is RELIABLE and DURABLE. One walk around the kitchen, ten objects, fifteen real spellings.

What comes next

• Suffixes -cial and -tial word search — another sound-alike pair, with another loose rule
• Suffixes -ant and -ent word search — the previous puzzle in this series
• All spelling word searches — the full series from foundation phonics to Year 6

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