began
- 1Past tense of begin.
The meeting began an hour later than scheduled.
Workers began clearing the rubble at first light.
Note
The form that stands on its own, with no helping verb: the meeting began, she began the letter. Like begin itself, it works with or without an object. Workers began clearing the rubble, but a meeting simply began. After have or had, modern English switches to begun. Using began there is the old participle use, which now reads as an error.
- 2Past participle of begin. Obsolete and now nonstandard; the standard form is begun.
He had no sooner been free from the horror and remorse attending the first few days of Louisa’s accident, no sooner begun to feel himself alive again, than he had began to feel himself, though alive, not at liberty.
1817, [Jane Austen], PersuasionNote
An older participle that once followed have and had, in the place begun holds now. Jane Austen's Persuasion, written in 1817, uses both in one sentence: he had "no sooner begun to feel himself alive again" than he "had began to feel himself, though alive, not at liberty." Today had began reads as a slip, so write had begun and keep began for the simple past.
began is a form of begin
begin, verb: To start doing something, or to start happening or existing. Full entry
- Spelling
- begin → began: irregular (no -ed)
Use it in a sentence
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