Tricky Verbs: Regret

1 Two Faces of Regret

What are your biggest regrets? These are the uncomfortable feelings we carry when we did something we now wish we hadn’t done — or didn’t do something we wish we had. Research shows common life regrets include: working too much and missing out on relationships and experiences; losing touch with friends as life gets busy and realizing too late how valuable those connections were; not taking risks when younger and playing it too safe.

We express these feelings using regret + gerund: ‘I regret working so much and not having more fun’ or ‘I regret not keeping in touch with my university friends.’ The gerund (the -ing form used as a noun) refers to the past action we wish we could change.

But now consider these sentences: ‘Dear Sir, We regret to inform you that your application was not successful’ or ‘We regret to inform passengers that the 10:30 train to Milan has been cancelled.’ Are these real regrets? Does the train company genuinely feel emotional pain about the cancellation?

Not really. Regret + infinitive is actually a formal device that institutions use to introduce bad news. As soon as you hear ‘We regret to inform you…’ or ‘We regret to announce…’, you know something unwelcome is coming. It’s polite framing, not genuine emotional regret.

2 Regret + Gerund: Looking Back with Genuine Feeling

This is the true meaning of regret — feeling sorry about past actions. The gerund is a noun form of a verb that refers to ‘doing the action.’ Gerunds don’t carry information about when something happened, but the meaning of ‘I regret’ is always backward-facing: it’s about things we did or didn’t do in the past.

3 Regret + Infinitive: The Formal Bad News Frame

This pattern has nothing to do with genuine regret. It’s a formal register device used mainly by institutions to soften the delivery of unwelcome information. You’ll encounter it in official letters, public announcements, and formal business communication.

4 Practice Both Patterns

Now demonstrate your understanding by using both forms of regret correctly.

5 Recap: The Two Meanings of Regret

The verb ‘regret’ works in two completely different ways, and mixing them up creates confusion. Regret + gerund expresses genuine emotional regret about past actions: things you did or didn’t do that you wish you could change. This is the true meaning of regret, and it connects naturally to ‘I wish I hadn’t…’ and ‘I shouldn’t have…’

Regret + infinitive, on the other hand, is not really about regret at all — it’s a formal device that institutions use to introduce bad news politely. When you hear ‘We regret to inform you…’, the speaker isn’t expressing personal emotion; they’re simply framing unwelcome information in a courteous way.

The key is register awareness: use the gerund for personal reflection and the infinitive for formal announcements. Keep these two patterns in separate worlds, and you’ll use ‘regret’ like a native speaker.