ABILE and IBILE Adjectives in the Italian Language – Which Ending To Use

ABILE and IBILE (ending adjectives) walking down the street.

I was always confused. Is something “doable” in Italian fattabile or fattibile? Or is something “reliable” affidabile or affidibile? Well, in retrospect it’s easy once you know that the ABILE suffix is used for adjectives deriving from verbs ending in ARE and IBILE is used for all other verbs. It’s fattibile and affidabile from fare and affidare. (Trick question because fare does end in ARE but is not considered part of that family of verbs.)

Below is a list of some of the most common ABILE and IBILE adjectives in Italian and the verbs they are derived from.

Some notes before getting to the list:

• I’m just a maker of lists and observer of patterns, so take this grammar advice with a grain of salt.
• The ABILE adjectives in general are easier to trace to the verb they derive from. The IBILE adjectives are trickier to understand where they came from, at least for us.
• Many adjectives derive from ‘obvious’ verbs and can be checked in a tool like wordreference.com. For example, accettabile from accettare.
• Other adjectives - shown with hyperlinks - needed to be checked in Treccani to understand where they came from. These adjectives tended to hark back to a Latin verb form and are marked as “†”.
• The prefixes IN and IR flip the meaning of the adjective but still can be traced to a verb. These are designated below with “*”.

Italian adjectives ending in ABILE and the verbs they derive from

accettabile – accettare
adattabile – adattare
adorabile – adorare
affidabile – affidare
affrontabile – affrontare
ascoltabile – ascoltare
attaccabile – attaccare

confessabile – confessare

consigliabile – consigliare
dominabile – dominare
imitabile – imitare

impensabile – pensare*   

inarrestabile – arrestare*

indomabile – domare*
inevitabile – evitare*

influenciabile – influenzare
inimitabile – imitare*
insospettabile – sospettare*
instabile – stare*
introvabile – trovare*

irrealizzabile – realizzare*    

irrintracciabile – rintracciare*

maneggiabile – maneggiare

mangiabile – mangiare
miserabile – commiserare
navigabile – navigare
negoziable – negoziare
orecchiabile – orecchiare
pensabile – pensare
potabile – potare†
probabile – approvare (probare†)

ravvisabile – ravvisare

realizzabile – realizzare
responsabile – rispondere
rintracciabile – rintracciare

smontabile – smontare

stabile – stare 

trattabile – trattare

trovabile – trovare
urbanizable – urbanizzare
utilizzabile – utilizzare
variabile – variare

Italian adjectives ending in IBILE and the verbs they derive from

accessibile – accedere
agibile – agire

ammissibile – ammettere   

attendibile – attendere
bevibile – bere
commestibile - comedĕre†
compatibile – compitire?
comprensibile – comprendere

concepibile – concepire
correggibile – correggere
credibile – credere

difendibile – defendere   

discutibile – discutere
disponibile – disporre
edibile – edĕre†
fattibile - fare
flessibile – flectĕre†

gestibile – gestire

illeggibile – leggere*

inagibile – agire*
inconcepibile – concepire*
incorreggibile – correggere*
incredibile – credere*

indifendibile – defendere*   

indiscutibile – discutere*
invisibile – vedere*
irraggiungibile – raggiungere*

leggibile – leggere
percorribile - percorrere

possible – potere

raggiungibile – raggiungere

riproducibile – riprodurre

sensibile – sentire

visibile – vedere