In grammar, a frequentative form of a word is one which indicates repeated action. The frequentative form can be considered a separate, but not completely independent word, called a frequentative. English frequentative is no longer productive, but in some languages, such as Finnish, it is.

English

English has -le or geminate-er endings. Some frequentative verbs surviving in English are listed below. Additionally, English will occasionally form a frequentative verb by doubling a monosyllable (e.g., murmur, coo-cooing). Frequentative nouns are often formed by combining two different vowel grades of the same word (as in teeter-tot, pitter-patter, chitchat, etc.)

• batter (bat)
• blabber (blab)
• chatter (chat)
• couple (<'cup')
• crackle (crack)
• curdle (curd)
• dribble (drip)
• flicker (flick)
• flitter (flit; <'fly')
• flutter (fleet, akin to float; <'fly')
• glimmer, glitter (<'glow')
• hurdle (<'hard')
• jiggle (jig)
• muddle (muddy)
• patter (pat)
• prattle (prate)
• prickle (prick)
• scribble (scribe)
• slither (slide)
• sniffle (sniff)
• sparkle (spark)
• stammer (stab)
• straddle (<'stride')
• strickle (strike)
• stubble (stub)
• swaddle (swathe)
• tipple (tip)
• trample (tramp)
• waddle (wade)
• waggle (wag)
• wrestle (wrest)

Finnish

In Finnish, a frequentative verb signifies a single action repeated, "around the place" both spatially and temporally. The complete translation would be "go -- around aimlessly". There is a large array of different frequentatives. Some forms:

• loikata -- loikkia -- loikin "to jump once -- to jump around -- I jump around"
• ampua -- ammuskella -- ammuskelen "to shoot -- go shooting around -- I go shooting around"
• juosta -- juoksennella -- juoksentelen "to run -- to run around (to and fro) -- I run around"
• kirjoittaa -- kirjoitella -- kirjoittelen "to write -- to write (something short) occasionally -- I write "around""

There are several frequentative morphemes, such as -i-, -skele-, -ntele- and -ttele- above. These are affected by consonant gradation so that the infinitives are -ia, -skella, -nnella and -tella as above. Their meanings are slightly different. For a list of different real and hypothetical forms, see: [1].

Loanwords are put into the frequentative form, if the action is such. If the action can be nothing else but frequentative, the "basic form" doesn't even exist, such as with "to go shopping".

• surffata -- surffailla "to surf -- to surf (around in the net)"
• *shopata -- shoppailla "*to shop once (impossible) -- to go shopping"

There's also this case with an adjective: iso -- isotella "big -- to talk big".