Regular Verbs: What They Are and How To Use Them

Do you know what a regular verb is? This regular verb will provide you with all of the information you need on regular verbs, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What is a regular verb?

According to Your Dictionary, a regular verb is one that is conjugated in a traditional form. Common regular verbs are dance, bake, and so on. A verb ends in the standard way with regular verbs. For example, the past tense will end in ed, while the progressive will be the ing form. With irregular verbs, the ending is irregular. This is similar with strong verbs and weak verbs in English grammar. In past forms like the simple past tenses, the past participle form, the gerund form, and future tense forms, they follow a standard pattern.

French also has a list of regular verbs for different tenses and conjugations such as je, tu, elle, il, nous, vous, and ils/elles including vendre, choisir, grandir, obéir, réussir, chanter, jouer, issent, abolir, utiliser, aimer, accomplir, grossir, répondre, attendre, and more regular French verbs according to Ontario

Many different languages also contain words that mean regular verb. You may notice that some of these translations of regular verb look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of regular verb is provided by Word Sense

  •  Nynorsk: regelmessig verb‎ (neut.)
  •  Czech: pravidelné sloveso‎ (neut.)
  •  Hungarian: szabályos ige‎
  •  Japanese: 規則動詞‎ (きそくどうし, kisoku dōshi)
  •  Norman: vèrbe rédgulyi‎ (masc.)
  •  Spanish: verbo regular‎ (masc.)
  •  Russian: пра́вильный глаго́л‎ (masc.)
  •  French: verbe régulier‎ (masc.)
  •  German: regelmäßiges Zeitwort‎, regelmäßiges Verb‎ (neut.), reguläres Verb‎ (neut.)
  •  Bokmål: regelmessig verb‎ (neut.)
  •  Scottish Gaelic: gnìomhair riaghailteach‎ (masc.)
  •  Mandarin: 規則動詞‎, 规则动词‎ (guīzé dòngcí)
  •  Catalan: verb regular‎ (masc.)
  •  Greek: κανονικό ρήμα‎ (neut.)

What are examples of regular verbs?

Regular verbs can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or grammatical technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of regular verbs that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use.  Take a look at these regular verb examples from Your Dictionary in the following sentences!

  •  Maria accepts the award on his behalf.
  •  Fido will destroy all the furniture.
  •  They bolt out the door.
  •  Andy and Angela hug in a warm embrace.
  •  They will bolt out the door.
  •  The dogs will amuse the baby.
  •  The off-color jokes will offend the audience.
  •  The newlywed couple will sail away on their honeymoon.
  •  I advised you to slow down.
  •  The off-color jokes offend the audience.
  •  Horace gazes out the window.
  •  The hamster escaped from his cage.
  •  The heroes plug into the matrix.
  •  Stella heats up her dinner in the microwave.
  •  Diane dressed for success.
  •  Diane will dress for success.
  •  Fido destroyed all the furniture.
  •  Nothing compares to freshly squeezed orange juice.
  •  Stella heated up her dinner in the microwave.
  •  Nothing will compare to freshly squeezed orange juice.
  •  The heroes plugged into the matrix.
  •  Andy and Angela will hug in a warm embrace.
  •  George will beg for your forgiveness.
  •  The off-color jokes offended the audience.
  •  Nothing compared to freshly squeezed orange juice.
  •  The dogs amuse the baby.
  •  The dogs amused the baby.
  •  The hamster escapes from his cage.
  •  They bolted out the door.
  •  Maria will accept the award on his behalf
  •  The heroes will plug into the matrix.
  •  Fido destroys all the furniture.
  •  Horace gazed out the window.
  •  George begs for your forgiveness.
  •  I will advise you to slow down.
  •  Andy and Angela hugged in a warm embrace.
  •  The hamster will escape from his cage.
  •  I advise you to slow down.
  •  Maria accepted the award on his behalf.
  •  The newlywed couple sail away on their honeymoon.
  •  Diane dresses for success.
  •  Stella will heat up her dinner in the microwave.
  •  The newlywed couple sailed away on their honeymoon.
  •  Horace will gaze out the window.
  •  George begged for your forgiveness.

What are other literary techniques and devices?

There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.

  • suffix
  •  adjective
  •  similative
  •  indirect question
  •  accusative
  •  possessive
  •  apposition
  •  participial adjective
  •  conditional
  •  verbal noun
  •  feminine
  •  complement
  •  passive
  •  pleonasm | pleonastic
  •  abstract
  •  premodify | premodifier
  •  comparative
  •  noun phrase
  •  indirect speech
  •  apodosis and protasis
  •  inflection | inflected | inflectional
  •  direct question
  •  adverb (adv.)
  •  present tense
  •  construction
  •  sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
  •  reflexive
  •  genitive
  •  passive infinitive
  •  non-referential
  •  concrete
  •  plural
  •  special use
  •  objective
  •  antecedent
  •  finite
  •  agree | agreement
  •  prepositional passive
  •  postmodify | postmodifier
  •  combining form (comb. form)
  •  periphrasis | periphrastic
  •  pronoun (pron.)
  •  indefinite
  •  predicative
  •  simple
  •  superlative
  •  impersonal (impers.)
  •  construed (const., constr.)
  •  base form
  •  nominative
  •  conjunction (conj.)
  •  parenthetical | parenthetically
  •  possessive pronoun
  •  preposition (prep.)
  •  dative
  •  appositive
  •  absolute (absol.)
  •  direct speech
  •  participle | past participle | present participle
  •  prepositional phrase
  •  morpheme
  •  protasis
  •  instrumental
  •  subjective
  •  person
  •  collective noun
  •  indirect object
  •  locative
  •  agent noun
  •  clause
  •  compound | compounding
  •  interjection
  •  demonstrative
  •  prepositional object
  •  optative
  •  proper noun | proper name
  •  determiner
  •  adverbial | adverbially
  •  anticipatory
  •  stem
  •  infinitive
  •  non-finite
  •  helping verb
  •  bare infinitive
  •  case
  •  gerund
  •  past participle
  •  gender
  •  phrase (phr.)
  •  main verb
  •  to-infinitive
  •  unmarked genitive
  •  quasi-
  •  indicative
  •  nominal relative | nominal relative clause
  •  number
  •  declarative
  •  head
  •  cognate object
  •  count noun
  •  attributive
  •  copular verb | copula
  •  definite article
  •  subordinate clause
  •  transitive
  •  tense
  •  relative
  •  element
  •  ellipsis | elliptical
  •  dual
  •  mass noun
  •  first person
  •  positive
  •  third-person
  •  main clause
  •  article
  •  second person
  •  auxiliary verb | auxiliary
  •  double object
  •  pro-form
  •  zero
  •  subject
  •  modify | modifier
  •  that-clause
  •  phrasal verb
  •  masculine
  •  intensifier
  •  intransitive
  •  noun (n.)
  •  anaphoric
  •  active
  •  modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
  •  present participle
  •  cataphoric
  •  part of speech
  •  singular
  •  prefix
  •  progressive
  •  indirect passive
  •  collocation | collocate
  •  imperative (imper.)
  •  vocative
  •  filler
  •  direct object
  •  verb (v.)
  •  complementary
  •  object | direct object | indirect object
  •  interrogative
  •   possessive adjective
  •  parasynthetic
  •  common noun
  •  causative
  •  personal pronoun
  •  perfect
  •  past tense
  •  combination
  •  mood
  •  subjunctive
  •  neuter

Overall, a regular verb is one that follows a standard conjugation pattern in the present tense, past tense, future tense, progressive tenses, and so on.

Sources:

  1. Glossary of grammatical terms | OED
  2. Regular Verb List | Your Dictionary 
  3. 5.2 Regular Verbs – Introduction to French | Ontario 
  4. regular verb: meaning, translation, antonyms | Word Sense