Why is there confusion between frequent and regular?

Question

I once saw a film where the doctor asked his patient if she was regular
She replied 'Yes doctor, once a fourtnight'
From this, the difference is obvious, so why do we hear 'regular' used so often in place of 'frequent'?

Ok, I use the anecdote as an example only, am not looking at bowel movements as such.

An example: Saw a news artical in the week where police had been making daily patrols but 'incidents' in the area were on the increase. To combat this, police were to make 'More regular' visits. Now, daily patrols are already regular, what the police were doing was increasing the frequency. Is that clearer?

Answer 1

Because many people nowadays do not speak standard English. In medical work for example both at highest and lower levels a high percentage of staff are immigrants from other countries and do not have a good command of spoken or written English, so may often use an inappropriate translation into English from the word in their own language they are trying to communicate.

Answer 2

I think regular in this instance is only ever used in this specific context. i.e. digestive mevments. The term frequent implies a relatively high occurrence of something above the normal level. Whereas regular can be realitvely infrequent - as long as it occurs at equidistant times.

eg. Christmas is regular but only happens once a year, so isn't very frequent. Whereas, lets say you were to have a cold you may sneeze frequently but this may not be regular. Bad examples i know but i hope it explains it a little better

Answer 3

Frequently could mean many times but not evenly spaced out.
Regular means evenly spaced out but not necessarily often.
This is what the joke is about.A 'regular' person is someone who has bowel movements at regular intervals.this is usually every day or every two days.
The person in the joke WAS in fact regular (once a fortnight) but this was far from being normal.
Allan. co has a good explanation also with Christmas and colds.

Answer 4

Regular means on schedule, that is, something is done frequently but is based on the schedule, which means how much is enough to be done. For example, You must exercise regularly, that means maybe twice a week is already enough to keep you healthy.

However, Frequent means often, that is, something is done many times and it is not based on schedule.
For example, You must exercise frequently, that means many times a day.

Hope this helps

Answer 5

Regular means, "with regularity," almost as though on a schedule... can be depended on...

Frequent means "often," but not necessarily on someokind of a schedule...

When a doctor asks if you are regular, he or whe is usually referring to whether you have a bowel movement regularly or not.

Diarrhea is "frequent" B.M.'s, but not necessarily "regular." If you are healthy, then you will have one a day with dependable regularity.

Answer 6

Regular means frequent. And frequent means something occuring often.Example;- he is a frequent visitor to the museum. He is a regular visitor of the museum. Both of them haave the same meaning.You can replace frequent by regular.

Answer 7

i have no idea what movie you're talking about, but "regular" implies consistency whereas "frequent" implies the number of sheer times. for example if i "regularly" visit a specific location 1 time a year, every year, i'm regular. i don't know if i could call myself a "frequent" visitor though.

Answer 8

I don't understand the question. I am not aware of any instances of "regular" being confused with "frequent."

Answer 9

Regular means in intervals of time.
Frequent means many times.

Answer 10

frequent sex,regular sex,you get one more than the other