Today’s English
June 28th, 2017
Start or begin?
You can start a bike. You can start a car. You can start a motor. But can you begin a bike? Can you begin a car or motor? You can’t. Start means “to keep something in motion" and “to make something functioning”. Begin is used to mention your own functioning rather than making others function: I began to tell a story.
If you want to talk about something that has a beginning, a progress and an end, you often use “begin" rather than “start".
Begin is generally used to describe series of events one after another but start is not used in this context.
Happenings of long period start but those of short period begin. When you say, “I started my career as a teacher ten years before, you emphasise the long period of service. When you say, I usually begin my class with two minutes meditation, short period of happening is pointed out.
If you do something first and then do something else, begin is best suited: I began my career as a lab assistant and became a lecturer after two years.
You cannot interchange start or begin if they are strongly fixed in idioms such as “charity begins at home" and “let’s get started"
Another difference is that start is mostly heard in spoken English whereas begin is often used in written English.
Remember one more thing that if it is a journey or business, use start not begin and if it is a speech or story, use begin, not start.
1. He struggled to start the car for a long time. (Began cannot be used)
2. He started at 6 a.m. and reached the place before evening. (Began is not used)
3. It’s a long story and I don’t know where to begin ? (Start is not used when you think of beginning, progress and end)
4. I have started a new business. (Not I have begun….)
5. He started his career when he was 28.
6. When he began to speak, the audience fell silent.
7. Well, to begin with, he was just sitting in his room. It was late in the evening. (Don’t use start, because you are describing a series of events.)
Commence or begin?
Commence is more formal than begin. It’s not frequently heard in spoken English. It’s restricted to official and academic occurrences, classes, meeting, conferences, etc.
1. Classes for first year commence on 12th July, 2017.
2. The admissions for LKG, and UKG commence from next month.
3. I hope, the meeting will commence with the announcement of dividend.
Start or initiate?
Initiate has a wider meaning than start and it’s used in the senses: to set in motion, to start a new programme or scheme for the first time as a reform, to make somebody a member of a particular group, and to start a legal action against someone.
1. Modi government has initiated a lot of schemes to reconstruct India and its economy.
2. Let’s first initiate and others will follow it later.
3. He was initiated by his master into sainthood at the young age.
4. We would initiate a legal action against your firm.
"Existence is the end of endless eternity without a beginning or an end."
- Dejan Stojanovic, “The Sun Watches the Sun”
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