Ability of adapting or ability to adapt

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hai1: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 39; Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:25 am; Thanked: 1 times; GMAT Score:600

by hai1 » Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:14 am

It sounds much better to use Ability to adapt, but is it a wrong idiom to use "ability of adapting as used in the below SC example.

Though subkect to wild -animal control efforts, the coyote's amazing ability of adapting to the presence of humans as enabled it to expand its range.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:14 am

Osirus@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1578; Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 8:02 amFollowed by: 34 members; Thanked: 128 times; GMAT Score:760

by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:44 am

Ability has to be followed by an infinitive.

Example:

Correct: She has the ability to sing

Incorrect: She has the ability of singing well.

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fibbonnaci: MBA Student; Posts: 403; Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2009 7:32 pmFollowed by: 22 members; Thanked: 98 times

by fibbonnaci » Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:47 am

hai1 wrote:It sounds much better to use Ability to adapt, but is it a wrong idiom to use "ability of adapting as used in the below SC example.

Though subkect to wild -animal control efforts, the coyote's amazing ability of adapting to the presence of humans as enabled it to expand its range.

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Hai1,
I second osirus0830's explanation.
'Ability of' is incorrect.
The correct idiom is ' Ability to'

Also IMO i think the sentence misplaced a 'has'- a verb for 'as' - a comparison. Correct me if i am wrong!

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