The phrase "a passable knowledge of how" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when describing a sufficient or adequate understanding of a particular subject or process.
Example: "To apply for this position, you should have a passable knowledge of how to use the software."
Alternatives: "a basic understanding of how" or "a sufficient grasp of how".
Thanks to Grandma, I had a passable knowledge of 1960s pop culture.
If he had, he would have been perfectly comfortable with a policy of nuclear deterrence: after all, mutually assured destruction relies on both sides having at least a passable knowledge of the weapons on hand.
Female investigators who looked ten years younger than their age and had passable knowledge of working-class argot played the role of loose woman to test an establishment's tolerance for immorality, and impersonated streetwalkers to survey the extent of sex traffic in an area.
It requires an acute knowledge of how creaking bureaucracies work.
But what we can say with certainty is that the way we say something certainly creates certainty-effects, and thus forms an important tool in our continued grappling with that obstinate, unruly reality, trying to attain a passable working knowledge of it so as to make it work for us, to get some task or other done.
What they often lacked were passable educations, regular medical care, jobs with benefits, or firsthand knowledge of how most other Americans live — New Orleans's low-income population being one of the least mobile and most isolated in the country.
The organisers will also be quietly relieved that just enough fans turned up to create a passable atmosphere, although how many Saracens supporters will now follow their team to Lyon remains a matter of conjecture.
Never mind that such sloppiness jolts the reader out of the suspension of disbelief necessary for reading the story - and is particularly unpardonable because a passable veneer of knowledge can be readily acquired by surfing the Internet.
ARIEL SHARON, Israeli warrior, did a passable imitation this week of the Grand Old Duke of York.
