Definition
able: competent, capable, skilled
He is a very able person. He can do a lot of things.
to be able (to do something): to be capable (of doing something), to be sufficiently competent (to do something)
Pronunciation examples
UK: Lucy is a very able athlete.
US: She was unable to fix my car by Tuesday.
- "I haven't been able to see Game of Groans for weeks."
- "Was anybody able to solve yesterday's homework problem?"
- "Philip : But this year, if this rate of growth continues, I am confident that we will be able to beat... wait for it, wait for it, wait for it... Mongolia!"
- "We sincerely hope you will be able to join us."
- "And since this is the Queen's Head pub, I thought you might be able to help me with my enquiries."
- "Kevin : Well Mrs Lee, because your factory seems so versatile, I was wondering if you would be able to handle our cosmetic packaging as well."
- "So this letter here... "I'm afraid we are currently experiencing cash-flow problems and will not be able to pay for the shipment of perfumes until next month..."."
- "ChinaCorp will definitely be able to take care of the production requirements you mentioned."
- "Icarus : Using high pitch frequencies emitted by the global positioning device in Bruno's helicopter, and then cross referencing them both with the amount of fuel in the helicopter as well as all known latitude and longitudes in both the eastern and western hemispheres, I was able to project Bruno and Susie's trajectory and landing location within one kilometer!"
- "Engineers are currently developing craft which would be able to fly from London to New York in 35 hours."
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