A weak verb is an imprecise action in a sentence. These types of verbs, like "to be" and "have," make writing wordy and less descriptive. Replacing these verbs with more expressive ones increases the clarity of a sentence. Replace these boring verbs with more exciting ones by using imagination and the guidelines below.

1

Replace less interesting verbs with more interesting ones. For example, you would replace the sentence "That restaurant has wedding receptions" with "That restaurant hosts wedding receptions."

2

Use active verbs instead of passive ones. Passive verbs appear when the action expressed in the verb is received by the subject, or when the subject is acted upon. An example of the passive form is "The girl was scratched by the cat." You would replace it with "The cat scratched the girl"--a stronger, more precise variation.

3

Shun the temptation to start sentences with "there are." This adds nothing to the meaning of the sentence. In fact, these are often referred to as "empty" words. For example, replace "There are kids swimming in the lake" with "Kids swim in the lake."

4

Find alternatives for "to be" or "to have". Replace these with stronger action verbs, indicating action explicitly. For example, replace, "Tom wants to be a policeman" with, "Tom wants to work as a policeman."

5

Use simple present tense and simple past tense. An example of simple present tense is "she runs" instead of the present progressive tense"she is running." An example of simple past tense is "she ran" instead of the past progressive tense, which is "she was running."