Verbs are important in all types of writing. They make the piece more exciting and help to engage the reader. However, many writers make the mistake of hiding their verbs (a process known as nominalization). This process can turn a verb into a noun and make you have to add a weak verb in its place.
For example:
We will make an announcement of the winner on Monday – make is a weak verb, it hides the strong verb (announce) and turns it into a noun (announcement).
We will announce the winner on Monday – This sentence is much shorter (and remember short sentences are key in eCommerce writing), stronger and cleaner. It also uses less glue words, which makes the sentence less sticky.
Hidden verbs are very common, especially when writing professional content for a client where we need to use a ‘business’ tone, but it’s important to use strong verbs for better readability, to make your writing less sticky and/or fluffy and to help engage the reader.
The Benefits of Strong Verbs
It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing a product page, conversion content, category page, blog or buying guide. Strong verbs will improve the quality of the piece.
When you use strong verbs, you minimize the need to use adverbs to describe the action of the verb.
Examples:
| Instead of | Use |
| He walked casually to the store | He ambled to the store |
| Pete drove home as quickly as possible | Pete sped home |
| Sue gleefully accepted the chance to work on the new project | Sue jumped at the chance to work on the new project |
Gerunds Are Weak Verbs That Function as Nouns
On many projects, we don’t allow the overuse of gerunds, and this is because they are weak verbs that act like nouns. It’s easy to spot a gerund, as it’s a verb that ends in ing. (We’ll go into more detail about gerunds in a later article).
Whenever possible, avoid using gerunds. Instead, use a present or past verb form.
Double Check Your Work
Of course, there will be times you can’t replace a weak verb with a strong one or you will have to use a gerund in your writing. But, the key is to learn when you can use strong verbs to tighten up your writing and make it more engaging.
It’s always a good idea to read through anything you write before you submit it. While you’re reading, ask yourself whether your choice of verb is the best option, or whether there’s a more descriptive or concise alternative you could use.
One of the best ways to replace weak verbs with strong ones is to use a thesaurus, and there’s plenty online to choose from. However, if you use a grammar checker like Prowritingaid (and you should), you’ll find that most have a thesaurus built in, which makes it quick and easy to find strong verbs when you need to.