begin

«begin» in Mova's school dictionary: to start doing something — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (begin, begins, began, begun, beginning)

meaning for a pupil

1) To begin is to start doing something. tree →

2) To begin is to start happening or existing: «The film begins at 7». tree →

3) To begin with means first, or at the start. tree →

sense in the lessons

the start of an activity, or the starting amount; also a start time; phrases «begin with», «to begin with», «beginning», «beginner», «once upon a time» (a story begins)

examples

• The movie begins at 7:15. tree →
• He began with 20 marbles. tree →
• She begins reading on page 12. tree →
• School begins in 3 days. tree →
• Let's begin our lesson. tree →
• It began to rain. tree →
• The word «cat» begins with c. tree →
• To begin with, read the question carefully. tree →
• He is a beginner at chess. tree →
• The story begins in a dark forest. tree →
• Then the Sun began to shine. tree →

note

Gives a start: a starting amount or a start time. Trap: to find how long, take the start time from the end time. Past forms: «began», «have begun» — not «begun» alone as past.

In the corpora

• Released pets can die or become pests, and many pests around the world began as someone's unwanted pet.
• In Japan a young female macaque began washing sandy sweet potatoes in water, and the habit spread through her troop by copying.
• Twice in this part a paragraph begins "Down, down, down." to show how long the fall goes on.
• Alice thinks: «I don't see how he can ever finish, if he doesn't begin.»
• The Hatter mumbles about «the twinkling of the tea»; the King says «Of course twinkling begins with a T!

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «begin» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.