能 vs 会 vs 可以: 能 = ability/circumstance allows it; 会 = learned skill; 可以 = permission. 我会游泳 (I know how to swim), 我能游一千米 (I can swim 1km), 这里可以游泳吗 (Can I swim here?).
Left-bottom is here the meat radical ⺼ — Kangxi #130 肉, the indexing radical of 能. In the parent it depicts the bear's body. Same flesh-radical groups 能 with 肌, 肝, 脸 — anatomy/body words rather than the moon family.
Top-left — in 能 this depicts the bear's head. Originally 能 was a full bear pictograph; the head shrank to a 厶-shape. Bears were emblems of strength, so 能 was borrowed for 'capability'; the bear sense survives in 熊 (with 灬 fire added below).
Upper-right 匕 — depicts one of the bear's two front paws. The two 匕 on the right side were originally a pair of legs/claws on the bear's standing body. Same shape recurs as a phonetic/semantic in 比, 化, 北.
Lower-right 匕 — the second paw, mirroring the upper one. Together with the upper 匕 they form the bear's two-leg base. In modern handwriting the pair has stylised but the doubling preserves the symmetry of the original four-legged-creature pictograph.
