The phrase "ability to know when" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing someone's skill or capacity to recognize the appropriate timing for an action or decision.
Example: "Her ability to know when to speak up in meetings has greatly contributed to the team's success."
Alternatives: "capacity to discern when" or "skill in recognizing when".
I feel quite good about my ability to know when something is done.
Depay can lack a killer touch and the ability to know when to pass and when not to.
Dr. Bederson is also skeptical of a predictive interface's ability to know when the best time to interrupt might be.
To be creative, engineers therefore must develop skills in divergent thinking, skills in convergent thinking, and the ability to know when each should be applied.
Said Mr. Rose afterward: "I've lived through four presidents, and he has a real ability to know when he's wrong and to see when things can be improved.
Ching has a striker's resourcefulness, an ability to know when and where he and the ball will occupy the same space.
Again, there was no detection, but we learned a great deal about our abilities to know when we detected a gravitational wave and that we can do science with the data.
It is as if both men believe in their and the system's ability simply to know when people are guilty or innocent, without the tiresome business of procedure or proof.
"Now, whether you win or lose," Smith said, "it will be based upon your ability to know the game — to know when you want to do a double steal, to know when you want to do a squeeze play, to know when you want to bring your infielders in — instead of, 'Oh, no, I can't hit that button.' " For people like Smith, another hurdle has been removed by the design team at Sony.
Rupert Sheldrake, a British biochemist trained at Cambridge, investigates the unexplained abilities of animals who seem to know when their human companions are about to board an airplane, when a favorite person is on the other end of the telephone or when someone is about to have an epileptic seizure.
George Howard, general manager of Shallotte River Swamp Park, took some footage of the frozen reptiles, explaining that gators have an uncanny ability to know just when the water is about to freeze wiggling themselves into position to survive when it turns to ice.
