Meaning & use
capable person
Last updated
Meaning
phrasefixed phrase
Someone who has the skill and reliability to do a job or task well.
Grammar: Used as a noun phrase; it describes a person, so it can follow 'a' or 'the'.
Patterns
- a capable person
- a highly capable person
- a capable person for something
She is a capable person who can handle the whole project alone.
They are looking for a capable person to run the new office.
As a capable person, he stays calm when problems appear.
Common combinations
- highly capable person
- The team needs a highly capable person to lead it.
- a capable person for the job
- We finally found a capable person for the job.
- prove to be a capable person
- She proved to be a capable person under pressure.
- a very capable person
- Everyone agrees he is a very capable person.
Synonyms and how they differ
- competent
- Competent stresses having enough skill for a task, while capable often suggests both skill and the confidence to use it.
- able
- Able is more formal and often followed by 'to do', whereas capable person stands alone as a description.
- skilled
- Skilled focuses on trained ability in a specific area; capable person is broader and includes reliability.
Opposites
Word family
- capable adjective
- Having the ability or skill to do something.
- capability noun
- The power or skill to do something.
- capably adverb
- In a skillful and effective way.
Commonly confused: capable person or capable of?
capable person vs capable of
'Capable of' is followed by an -ing verb or a noun, as in 'capable of doing it', not by a bare verb.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'capable person' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Capable of' takes an -ing form, so 'capable person of solving' is correct. Option 0 wrongly uses 'to solve' after 'capable', and option 1 uses the bare verb 'solve' after 'of'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “capable person”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.