Hábiles

Hábiles is an adjective in Spanish meaning skilled, capable or competent. The form hábiles is the plural and is used with nouns of any gender (for example, una persona hábil, dos personas hábiles; los jugadores hábiles). The singular form is hábil. In everyday use, hábiles describes people or things that have the ability to perform a task effectively.

In addition to describing capabilities, hábiles appears in common expressions such as días hábiles, which denotes working days—those on which business is typically conducted. Días hábiles are usually counted excluding Saturdays, Sundays and official holidays, though exact rules can vary by country or contract. Related terms include días laborables (working days) and días útiles in some regional usages. Horas hábiles refer to business hours during which offices and institutions are open.

Etymology and related forms: hábil comes from Latin habilis, meaning able or suitable, and gives rise to related verbs such as habilitar (to enable) and nouns like habilidad (ability). The word is cognate with terms in other Romance languages that express competence or practicality.

See also: capacidad, competencia, laborable, días naturales.