Make Your Point > Archived Issues > COMPETENT & INCOMPETENT
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pronounce
COMPETENT & INCOMPETENT:
"Competent" is "COM puh tunt." To hear it, click here.
"Incompetent" is "IN com puh tunt." Or, if you prefer, "in COM puh tunt." To hear it, click here.
connect these words to others:
Our words competent and incompetent come from the Latin competere, "to be suitable." We can break competere down a bit further, into com ("with or together") and petere ("to strive for").
But petere, as I've shared before, has oh-so-many meanings besides "to strive for;" it can also mean "to go to, to rush at, to attack, to ask for, to seek, to demand, to require, to beg..." That's why we see it in oh-so-many English words, like repeat, compete, and appetite, as well as these:
__petu___, meaning "moving in a forceful, violent, unthinking way;" and
petu____, meaning "cranky, sulky, and in a bad mood, usually in a childish way."
Could you recall both?
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
In Latin, competere means "to agree, to coincide, to be qualified, to be suitable, or to strive together." You can see how competere gave us the word "compete," as well as the ones we're checking out today:
Someone competent is qualified: ready and able to do the tasks at hand. In other words, if you're competent, you're skilled at what you're doing, and able to do it correctly.
Someone incompetent, then, is not qualified: not ready, not able to do the tasks at hand. In other words, if you're incompetent, you're unskilled at what you're doing, and not able to do it correctly.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Adjectives: "a competent student;" "an incompetent cashier."
Other forms:
The nouns are "competence" and "incompetence." (Or, if you prefer, "competency" and "incompetency.")
And the adverbs are "competently" and "incompetently."
how to use them:
Pick these formal, very common words to talk about people doing their jobs just fine--or totally failing to do them. That is, while the word "competent" is a mild compliment, suggesting that someone is doing their job just fine, the word "incompetent" is a harsh insult, suggesting that someone is a failure at their job and shouldn't be doing it.
Generally we talk about competent (and incompetent) types of workers and hobbyists: competent teachers and police officers, competent musicians and athletes, competent cooks and pilots, competent gardeners and bridge players, etc.
We also talk about people who are competent in their various roles or tasks in life: a competent student, spouse, housekeeper, parent, leader, conversationalist, party host, judge of character, etc.
People can also be competent or incompetent at certain tasks or activities ("He's competent at chess;" "She's been driving for only a few years but is highly competent behind the wheel") or with certain things or people ("He's competent with audiovisual equipment;" "They need to hire someone competent with little kids").
Lastly, although it's usually people who are competent or incompetent, it can also be their work: "We admired the competent design of the gardens;" "This here is some incompetent storytelling."
examples:
"Avery had established himself as a competent microbiologist, but had never imagined venturing into the new world of genes and chromosomes."
— Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene, 2016
"The canal was a flop: some parts ran uphill, apparently because of incompetent engineering, and the rest lost nine-tenths of its water to evaporation and seepage."
— Charles C. Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, 2005
has this page helped you understand "competent" & "incompetent"?
study them:
Explain the meaning of "competent" without saying "knows what they're doing" or "up to the job."
And, explain the meaning of "incompetent" without saying "doesn't know what they're doing" or "not up to the job."
try them out:
With the phrase "You had one job," the Internet loves to laugh at incompetence:
And my personal favorite:
With these examples of incompetence in mind, talk about a funny or shocking example of incompetence you've witnessed. Was it definitely incompetence, or just an error? What's the difference? What would a competent worker have done differently?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is "Clues in Cobbled Haikus."
Check out the haiku, cobbled together from the work of a famous writer, and see if you can identify the term it's suggesting.
Try this one today:
Cobbled from the work of Mick Jones, the haiku below suggests which of the following terms: ad rem, jamais vu, or red herring?
Open up the door
Feels like the very first time
All my eyes can see
To see the answer, scroll all the way down.
review this word:
A. INABILITY.
B. POOR ATTITUDE.
C. LACK OF AMBITION.
2.
In Moments of Doubt and Other Mountaineering Writings, David Roberts describes "the coldness of competence:" "If anything goes wrong it will be a fight to the end. If your _____ is good enough, survival is there; if not nature claims its forfeit."
A. training
B. equipment
C. inspiration
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
On vocabulary...
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.
From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Our words competent and incompetent come from the Latin competere, "to be suitable." We can break competere down a bit further, into com ("with or together") and petere ("to strive for").
In Latin, competere means "to agree, to coincide, to be qualified, to be suitable, or to strive together." You can see how competere gave us the word "compete," as well as the ones we're checking out today:
Part of speech:
Pick these formal, very common words to talk about people doing their jobs just fine--or totally failing to do them. That is, while the word "competent" is a mild compliment, suggesting that someone is doing their job just fine, the word "incompetent" is a harsh insult, suggesting that someone is a failure at their job and shouldn't be doing it.
"Avery had established himself as a competent microbiologist, but had never imagined venturing into the new world of genes and chromosomes."
Explain the meaning of "competent" without saying "knows what they're doing" or "up to the job."
With the phrase "You had one job," the Internet loves to laugh at incompetence:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. |