regret

«regret» in Mova's school dictionary: to feel sorry or sad about something you did or did not… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (regret, regrets, regretted, regretting); noun (regret, regrets)

meaning for a pupil

1) To regret something is to feel sorry or sad about something you did or did not do, and wish it had been different. tree →

2) Regret is that sad, sorry feeling. tree →

3) In polite, formal writing, «We regret…» means «We are sorry to say…». tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories and lessons about feelings, characters regret mean words or bad choices and then try to make things right. Phrases: «I regret it», «no regrets», «regret doing», «to my regret», «We regret to inform you».

examples

• I regret shouting at my brother. tree →
• She regretted not wearing her coat when it started to snow. tree →
• He said sorry because he regretted breaking the vase. tree →
• Try things now so you have no regrets later. tree →
• We regret that the swimming pool is closed today. tree →
• The fox regretted being greedy when he lost his food. tree →
• It was not long, however, before he had cause to regret his weakness. tree →

note

Past: «regretted» (double t). Adjectives: «regretful» (feeling regret) and «regrettable» (something to be sorry about). «Regret doing» = sorry about what you did; «regret to say» = sorry about what you are going to say.

In the corpora

• Some feuds are never mended, and people often regret it for the rest of their lives.
• Regret is the feeling of wishing you had not done something; it can help you choose better next time.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «regret» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.