"rudimentary ability" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It refers to a basic or fundamental level of expertise or skill in a particular area. Example: Despite his rudimentary ability in mathematics, John managed to pass the test with a decent score.
But there was disagreement about whether the hijackers themselves needed any special expertise beyond rudimentary ability at the controls.
By now, it is generally agreed that infants come equipped with a rudimentary ability to perceive and represent number.
The CD's have scans of all the bills, a summary of billing categories and in some cases, feature a rudimentary ability to search for specific bills or information.
Without wishing to downplay their hard work, I know pupils who have achieved an A* with what I would consider to be only the most rudimentary ability in French and certainly not a true A2-level.
A London band of floppy fringes and fairly rudimentary ability, by the sheer fortune of having been picked up by Rough Trade, they're endowed with a great deal of instant kudos.
Because Archaeopteryx had a full complement of long feathers and its skeleton suggests at least a rudimentary ability to fly, it has been regarded as the first known bird, a position it has held since its discovery.
The quartet's ability to make propulsive, exciting music with the most rudimentary abilities and superb live shows were inspirational to a generation of punk musicians.
Their defiantly reductive approach - their songs lasted two or three minutes, rarely used more than three chords and never contained guitar solos, which Johnny Ramone could not play - changed rock music forever, offering the first recorded proof of the punk dictum that a band with even the most rudimentary abilities could make innovative, wildly exciting records.
Under normal developmental conditions, rudimentary abilities to discriminate between individuals can be observed already after the first days of age [57], [58] and continue to develop rapidly [59], [60].
Ever since the Chelsea captain gatecrashed his club's Champions League victory celebrations, decked out in full kit and shinpads, as if trying to convince the world (and himself) that he had played in the final (rather than watching from the sidelines due to being banned), wags with rudimentary Photoshop ability have been inserting him into all kinds of jubilant scenes.
Early incarnations of these in-house divisions, however, often employed junior staff members with only basic HTML skills and even more rudimentary management ability.
