# began

Pronunciation: say "bi-GAN" /bɪˈɡæn/

## Verb

1. Past tense of begin. — simple past of begin
   - Simple: Past tense of begin. Use it for the past.
   - _The meeting began an hour later than scheduled._
   - _Workers began clearing the rubble at first light._

## Verb

2. Past participle of begin. Obsolete and now nonstandard; the standard form is begun. *(obsolete)* — past participle of begin
   - Simple: Past participle of begin. An old form. Modern English uses begun instead.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/began (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).