Words that are easily confused

Amiable/ amicable/ amenable

The adjective amiable means to be friendly and pleasant. Someone who is good-natured, nice, and agreeable may be called amiable. Also, someone who is delightful, kind, and sociable may be called amiable. The adjective amiable derives from a Latin term meaning friendly. It is used to describe a person.

The adjective amicable describes the relationship between people. Something is amicable if it has a quality of friendliness. So we might see in the newspaper a sentence such as:

The amiable Hollywood movie stars who were formerly married had an amicable divorce.

This means that the stars are friendly, and even though they got a divorce, they did it on friendly terms. Note that the adjective amiable describes the people, while the adjective amicable describes their relationship. If a relationship between people is civil, courteous, and polite, then it may be described as amicable. The adjective amicable originates from a Latin word meaning friend.

The adjective amenable means to be open to suggestion or easily persuaded. It is used to describe people. If children are obedient to their parents and grandparents, then they may be called amenable. The adjective amenable derives from a Latin word meaning to be led. So we might see a sentence such as the following:

The amiable Hollywood movie stars who were formerly married were amenable to having an amicable divorce.

When words are so similar, it is often difficult even for native speakers of English to keep them apart. Some techniques that have been suggested include to remember the meanings of amiable and amicable, since the letter C appears in the word amicable, we can let it remind us of the word Crowd. If we think of a crowd, we may recall that the adjective amicable is used to describe a relationship between different people, not a single individual.

While a lot of people may be amiable, they are each amiable in their own way. Being amiable, or amiability, is an individual quality. So we might see a sentence such as:

The Thai women’s volleyball team are all amiable athletes.

This means that the players are all friendly, kind, and sociable. But if we want to discuss how the Thai women’s volleyball team gets along with another team, we might write:

The Thai women’s volleyball team played an amicable match against the South Korean team.

This suggests that there were no fights or arguments at the match, and both teams interacted in good spirits.

One way to separate the adjectives amiable and amicable from amenable might be to think of the way the word amenable sounds when it is pronounced. The word amenable sounds like it has the word mean in it. So a conversation might go as follows between friends:

Chanchai: Are you amenable to seeing the movie Birds of Prey at the mall this weekend?  

Apinya: Yes, we all mean to see Birds of Prey.

If someone means to do something, then we can say that they are amenable to doing it.

Here are some more usage examples:

• What the authorities forget in their attempt to impose ‘order’ on the streets of Kathmandu is that these people are much like everyone else, trying to find a means to survive. But the Nepal government’s negligence in creating provisions that are amenable to its poorest makes us question whether its attitude towards its underprivileged is rooted in goodwill, or in dismissal and negligence.
• The Iridia collection from FENDI is a harmony of retro-futuristic design and stylish feminine allure. The cat’s-eye frame is made of Optyl, an ultra-lightweight plastic that’s amenable to unparalleled colour effects. You get soft, round lines enhanced by pyramidal oversize crystals surrounding the lenses, causing a magnetic effect.
• Martial law allows the military to establish control with measures such as curfews, checkpoints and gun controls in a country where civilians are authorised to keep licensed firearms in their homes. However, any martial law extension must be approved by Congress. The subject remains sensitive in the Philippines decades after the late deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos put the country under military rule for part of his 20-year term…”I am amenable to it,” House of Representatives justice committee chairman Reynaldo Umali, a key Duterte ally, told ABS-CBN television Friday.
• Language is one component of the human cognitive capacity which happens to be fairly amenable to enquiry. So we know a good deal about that. – Noam Chomsky
• The future and the past mingle amiably in a city that never seems to squander chances to be better. Winter is genuinely chilly in Seoul, and residents and tourists in their vibrantly hued coats make the South Korean capital look like a colourful fashion runway as they stroll among the shops and offices.
• There are good reasons why Chalita is a snug fit for the job, as her participation in the pageant readily demonstrated. The 22-year-old-model-turned-beauty titlist knows how to make a grand entrance (she arrived in the country with 17 suitcases) and sustain the public’s interest in her. She won the fan vote and became the first titleholder from Thailand to make it to the competition’s Top 6 since Porntip Nakhirunkanok won the Miss Universe crown in 1988. Not bad for a first-time beauty contestant. And if you’re wondering about her amiable but don’t-mess-with-me countenance, Chalita has German blood running through her veins (her mom’s Thai-German), like our very own former Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach. So there.
• It destroys one’s nerves to be amiable every day to the same human being. – Benjamin Disraeli
• Victorious Watanya in amicable split from FAT. National under-23 football team manager Watanya Wongopasi has resigned her post, despite the team’s successful gold medal defence at the 29th SEA Games.
• Thailand congratulates Kazakhstan for being elected to the United Nations Security Council, and sincerely appreciates the support rendered to Thailand from all Member States throughout the campaign. The election required two rounds of voting, which showed that both Thailand and Kazakhstan were both well-recognized candidates with amicable competition.
• The Japanese Embassy will try its best to continue to promote cooperation in the political, security, economic, and international spheres and indeed contribute to the development of this whole region through the deepening of the amicable relationships between Japan and Thailand and between Japan and ASEAN. – HE Ambassador Shiro Sadoshima

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)