start

«start» in Mova's school dictionary: the beginning of something: the start of the race — 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

noun (start, starts); verb (start, starts, started, starting)

meaning for a pupil

1) The start is the beginning of something: the start of the race. tree →

2) To start is to begin to do something: start reading. tree →

3) To start something is to make it begin or work: start the car. tree →

4) To start can mean to jump a little in surprise. tree →

5) «For a start» means as the first point. tree →

6) To start for a place means to set off on a journey towards it. tree →

sense in the lessons

the first step of a scene or story, before any change («At the start, Ben had 9 cards» = the first count); a question about the start means undoing the changes; in sport the start line; in everyday life «start school», «start again», «a fresh start»; in safety «start the car» is only for adults

examples

• What if at the start I had put two pears instead? tree →
• At the start, Ben had 9 cards. tree →
• How many cards did Zoe have at the start? tree →
• The race starts at ten o'clock. tree →
• Let's start from the beginning. tree →
• It started to rain. tree →
• I start school next week. tree →
• The loud bang made me start. tree →
• Stand behind the start line. tree →
• Toward evening they started for home. tree →

note

«at the start» marks the first count. Trap: when the question asks for the start, undo the changes: add back what went, take away what came. Past «started». Opposite: end, finish. «start» and «begin» mean nearly the same.

In the corpora

• Starting a new job means learning new systems, names and rules all at once, so people come home tired.
• Family feuds often start over money, a will or hurtful words, and they can last for years.
• The easiest way never to have a hard habit is never to start one.
• Nicotine is very addictive, so smokers feel uncomfortable until they have the next one, and most started as teenagers.
• Many people pay every month for a gym and then stop going, because starting a habit is easy and keeping it is hard.

Trees and pragmatics

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