Reguliere

Reguliere is a Dutch adjective meaning "regular" or "standard." It is the inflected form used before definite nouns, as in de reguliere expressie (the regular expression) or de reguliere werkdagen (the regular workdays). The base adjective is regulier, and reguliere reflects typical Dutch agreement rules for adjectives preceding nouns.

Etymology and related forms

Reguliere derives from the French régulier, through Dutch regulier. The sense of following an established rule or standard is carried into several domains, including mathematics, linguistics, and everyday usage. Dutch also has a closely related adjective regelmatige, the feminine singular form of regelmatig, which conveys a sense of periodicity or recurrence rather than conformity to a standard.

Usage and sense

In general, reguliere is used to denote conformity with a set of rules, norms, or routines. For example, een reguliere procedure refers to an established, officially accepted procedure, while reguliere onderwijs describes standard educational offerings. The term is common in technical and formal language, particularly in contexts distinguishing standard or normal cases from exceptional or irregular ones.

Relation to other terms

Reguliere is often contrasted with onregelmatige (irregular) when describing verbs (reguliere werkwoorden vs. onregelmatige werkwoorden) or processes. It is also contrasted with regelmatig, which emphasizes frequency or recurrence (periodicity) rather than adherence to a rule. In computing, reguliere expressie is the Dutch term for regular expressions, a formal language for pattern matching in text.

See also

regel, regulier, regelmatig, onregelmatig, regelmatige, reguliere expressie.