-ável
Portuguese, suffix/ˈa.vew/
-ável is spelled Á-V-E-L (4 letters). -ável is a Portuguese feminine suffix meaning “-able” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “sufixo formador de adjetivos a partir de verbos, com a ideia de "pode-se/é possível/é imaginável/é passível…”.
What does -ável mean in English?
suffix
- 1
femininemasculine-able
cantar (“to sing”) + -ável → cantável (“singable”)
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
suffix: 1. sufixo formador de adjetivos a partir de verbos, com a ideia de "pode-se/é possível/é imaginável/é passível de"
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
How do you pronounce -ável?
- Brazil /ˈa.vew/
- Brazil [ˈa.veʊ̯]
- Portugal /ˈa.vɛl/
Sources: English Wiktionary, Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to -ável
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.