"certain ability" is grammatically correct and can be used in written English.
It is often used to describe a specific or particular skill or talent that someone possesses. Example: John has a certain ability to fix any mechanical issue, no matter how complex it may seem.
My cunning plan might falter if enough people fail, despite clutching their certificate of certain ability.
But now, people of a certain age have a certain ability to splurge on this material".
"These strategic forces give each side the certain ability to carry out an annihilating counterattack," the document said.
These strategic offensive forces give each side the certain ability to carry out an annihilating counterattack on the other side regardless of the conditions under which the war began.
It gives me a certain ability to have the confidence that, with the trust and help of others, I can do something positive at the end of this process.
It gives me a certain ability to have the confidence that, with the trust and help of others, I can do something positive at the end of this process," he said in his Guardian interview.
That being said, I feel that I have certain abilities as the owner of an independent firm.
They privilege certain abilities — eloquence, aggressiveness, quickness of wit, an ability to convey emotions that "resonate" — that are not always distinguishable from glibness or demagoguery.
His budget is greater and he retains certain abilities to appoint officials in national politics that give him, and national leaders like him, a classical type of power.
Whether you qualify for these depends entirely on each university (some want to tempt all; some just want students of certain abilities or subjects).
There is much hand-wringing these days about the decline of certain abilities in the digital age -- of memory, of extended reading, of writing without shortened words.
