We consider dispersive systems of the form ∂ t U = Λ U U + B U (U, V), ε∂ t V = Λ V V + B V (U, U) in the singular limit ε → 0, where Λ U , Λ V are linear and B U , B V bilinear mappings. We are interested in deriving error estimates for the approximation obtained through the regular limit system ∂ t ψ U = Λ U ψ U − B U (ψ U , Λ −1 V B V (ψ U , ψ U)) from a more general point of view. Our abstract approximation theorem applies to a number of semilinear systems, such as the Dirac-Klein-Gordon system, the Klein-Gordon-Zakharov system, and a mean field polaron model. It extracts the common features of scattered results in the literature, but also gains an approximation result for the Dirac-Klein-Gordon system which has not been documented in the literature before. We explain that our abstract approximation theorem is sharp in the sense that there exists a quasilinear system of the same structure where the regular limit system makes wrong predictions.