NIMBLE AND ABLE

Today I am going to deal with words ending with 'mble' and 'ble'. One day one of my colleagues asked me permission to leave early, when I was the Branch Manager at Berhampur. He requested me 'Sir, please permit me to go early at 4.00PM. This is my humble request'. I noticed that he used the word humble and told him jokingly, 'O.K your humble request is considered, you can leave whenever you want. But can you tell me a few more words ending with mble, since you used the word humble just now?

When I asked him to tell me some more words ending with mble, he fumbled, mumbled, crumbled, grumbled and finally tumbled without telling me even a single word ending with mble. Then I told him don't worry, I'll help you - to start with, there are many words ending with mble, for example, amble, bumble, gamble, jumble, nimble, ramble, rumble, wamble, bramble, shamble, stumble, thimble, tremble, assemble, ensemble, preamble, resemble, scramble, dissemble are some words, which end with the suffix mble. I am not going to tell you the meaning of each word in this list, since I suggest you to consult a good dictionary about these words and their meanings. Dictionary is a place where industry comes before success.

I also told him not to get worried about these words but one should try to practice this type of words which are useful and helpful in building one's vocabulary, so that one can use them depending upon the situation and allowed him to leave the office. Next day he evinced more interest and prepared a list of these items within 3 days. He could find all the words and their meanings neatly prepared in a small note book and thanked me for igniting his interest in learning such words duly sorted and assorted. He also told me that his son and daughter in Intermediate level also helped him in this exercise and developed a fascination for learning and using new words on a regular basis.


Later on, I found that besides these words ending with mble, there are many words which end with ble. For example, able, bible, cable, fable, gable, noble, ruble,sable, table, arable, babble, bobble, bubble, burble, cobble, dabble, dibble, doable, double, edible, enable, feeble, foible, gabble, garble, gobble, hobble, kibble, liable, marble, nibble, nobble, pebble, rabble, rubble, stable, treble, unable, usable,viable, womble, warble, wobble, affable, amiable, audible, brabble, capable, curable, disable, dribble, durable, eatable, ennoble, equable, flyable, friable, fusible, grabble, ignoble, legible, likable, livable, lovable, mixable, movable, mutable, notable, parable, payable, pliable, potable, quibble, risible, salable, sizable, soluble, stubble, tamable, taxable, tenable, triable, trouble, tunable, visible, vocable, voluble, washable.

There is a vast scope to find so many words ending with ble. We can also find credible words like amicable, arguable, bailable, bankable, bearable, biddable, blamable, bribable, chewable, closable, clubbable, crucible, culpable, damnable, dutiable, educable, eligible, enfeeble, enviable, if we go on exploring these words, this list is extendable to infinite proportions and becomes tiresome to the reader.

I also observed that in their eagerness to use words, many people add the suffix 'able' to any verb to make it viable. That leads to so many bloomers and distortions - cookable, sayable, are some of the glaring examples. These mistakes are committed due to lack of common sense and also due to scant respect or ignorance in using correct language. Moreover, this type of transgressions happen only when the users start to think in their mother tongue and try to compare it with the English language, which is not their mother tongue. My father used to say that to learn any language, one should go on exploring just like a child who imitates his parents and siblings for learning the language in the initial stages. He also advocated the four faculties essential for learning any language, viz. reading, writing, listening and finally speaking. All these skills are interdependent and help us to learn and use the language with precision and aplomb.

The process of learning is to be initially encouraged by English teachers, who must also be good speakers themselves. But such teachers are very rare. The most disheartening aspect of this unsatisfactory state of affairs is the complacency with which ineptitude is tolerated at all levels. Inability to speak well is not a failing subject, but no effort is made towards a definite improvement or for learning by the so called aspirants.

It is only an attempt to share my feelings with well wishers like you.

Hari Krishna