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Verb Strength Guide
Every sentence pivots on its verb. A strong verb carries imagery, manner, and meaning in a single word. A weak verb needs modifiers to do the same job badly. Here's how to tell the difference.
Start Writing on iWrity — Free“Sprinted”
beats “ran quickly” — one word vs. two, more imagery in both
is / was
are the most common weak-verb signals to audit in revision
Nominalisations
bury verbs inside nouns — the single biggest energy drain in prose
6 Verb Strength Techniques
Replace generic verbs, eliminate nominalisations, and put imagery into every sentence.
Replacing Verb-Adverb Pairs
Every verb-adverb pair (“said loudly,” “moved slowly,” “looked carefully”) is an invitation to find the single verb that encodes both elements. “Said loudly” becomes “shouted,” “bellowed,” or “barked,” each with a different connotation. “Moved slowly” becomes “crept,” “shuffled,” “trudged,” or “waded,” each suggesting a different environment and physical state. The replacement verb is always shorter, always more specific, and almost always more vivid. The pair is an early-draft placeholder for a word you have not found yet.
Eliminating Nominalisations
Nominalisations turn verbs into nouns, burying action inside abstraction. “She made a decision” should be “she decided.” “They reached an agreement” should be “they agreed.” “He gave an explanation” should be “he explained.” The revision is always shorter, always more direct, and always assigns the action more clearly to a specific agent. Nominalisations accumulate in prose written under time pressure or in the register of formal institutions. Scan for nouns ending in “-tion,” “-ment,” “-ance,” and “-ness” as likely nominalisations.
Imagery-Carrying Verbs
The best verbs do not just describe action — they conjure an image. “Stalked” tells you how someone walked and what mood they were in. “Skimmed” tells you how someone read and what their relationship with the material was. “Gnawed” tells you how someone ate and something about desperation or habit. Building a working vocabulary of imagery-carrying verbs takes deliberate effort: keep a list of strong verbs you encounter in reading, noting the specific image each one generates. This is vocabulary acquisition through context rather than through definition.
Avoiding “To Be” Constructions
“To be” verbs (“is,” “was,” “were,” “are,” “been”) describe states of existence rather than actions, which makes them energetically inert. Prose saturated with “to be” verbs feels flat and reported. The revision strategy is to ask: what is happening here? “She was nervous” describes a state; “she picked at her thumbnail” shows it in action. “The market was chaotic” describes a quality; “vendors shoved, haggled, and shouted across three languages” performs it. Each revision adds energy by replacing a static description with a dynamic scene.
Genre-Appropriate Verb Registers
Strong verbs are not the same verbs across all genres. Thriller verbs are kinetic and violent: slam, pivot, wrench, shatter. Literary fiction verbs are precise and sensory: noticed, folded, tilted, pressed. Horror verbs are unsettling and physical: twitched, peeled, pooled, swelled. Romance verbs are charged and attentive: held, traced, leaned, waited. Collecting strong verbs in the register appropriate to your genre is part of developing a genre-specific vocabulary. A literary-fiction verb in a thriller reads as incongruous; a thriller verb in a quiet domestic novel reads as comic.
The Verb Audit Process
A verb audit is a revision pass focused exclusively on verbs. Go sentence by sentence and ask: is this the strongest available verb for this specific action in this specific context? Highlight every instance of “to be,” “got,” “went,” “moved,” “said,” and “looked” — the most commonly overused generic verbs. These are the revision targets. Not all of them need replacing; “said” in dialogue tags is intentionally invisible. But in action and description, every generic verb is a missed opportunity to add specificity and imagery that the reader will feel without identifying.
Verbs Are the Engine of Your Prose
iWrity gives you the drafting and revision tools to make every word earn its place — starting with the verb.
Try iWrity FreeVerb Strength — FAQs
What makes a verb “strong” in writing?
A strong verb carries imagery, manner, and meaning in a single word. “Sprinted” is stronger than “ran quickly” because it encodes speed, effort, and urgency without a modifier. The test is whether removing the accompanying adverb leaves the action less precise. If it does, the verb is weak and needs replacing.
How do I reduce reliance on “to be” verbs?
Identify every “is,” “was,” “were,” “are,” “been,” and “being” in a passage, then ask: is there an action concealed here? “She was afraid” can become “she flinched.” “There was a silence in the room” can become “the room went silent.” Each revision introduces a more dynamic, specific action.
Do strong verbs work in every genre?
Yes, but the type of strong verb varies by genre. Thrillers favour violent, kinetic verbs: smash, pivot, tear. Literary fiction favours precise, sensory verbs: traced, folded, tilted. The common thread is specificity and imagery. Every genre benefits from verbs that do something rather than merely exist.
What is a nominalisation and how does it weaken prose?
Nominalisation turns a verb into a noun: decide becomes decision, fail becomes failure. “She made a decision” buries the verb inside a noun and pads the sentence. “She decided” is more direct, more energetic, and shorter by two words. Business and academic writing are plagued by nominalisation because it sounds formal.
How many strong verbs per paragraph is the right target?
Strong verbs should dominate, not appear occasionally. A paragraph with five sentences should contain at least three or four verbs with specific imagery rather than generic placeholders. The diagnostic: would a stranger reading the paragraph be able to visualise the action clearly? If the answer is “sort of,” the verbs are doing minimal work.
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