What's The Difference Between Begin And Start?

Quite often they are the same: you can start or begin your meal, the day, a job etc. Begin can sound a little more formal even if the meaning is the same: "We will begin the meeting with a vote of thanks" or "Don't start talking again! I'm trying to work."

You can use start in most situations. However, there are some cases where begin is not possible. These include:

"start working" eg "My computer won't start." You can't use begin to talk about a machine functioning.

"make something start" eg "How do you start this car?"

"start a journey" "Let's start early before the traffic builds up."

On the other hand, someone learning a new subject is a beginner, not a starter.

Otherwise the two words are mostly the same, and grammatically can be used in the same way.

Quite often there is no important difference. For example, you can say "What time does the meeting end/finish?" You can also end or finish a relationship.

Finish is more often used in the sense of completing a task or activity, or reaching the end of something. For instance:

finish your work
finish your dinner
finish a sentence

(Remember, girls from rich families used to be sent to "finishing school" to "complete the process" of making them into perfect ladies!)

End is more often used to imply stopping or breaking something off, or deliberately bringing it to a close.

A formal letter ends with "yours faithfully."
I'd like to end my speech by thanking the chairman...
I can't decide how to end this story

End is also used for the physical endings of things:

end of the road
word endings

Generally if something is definitely over, we say "end" (for instance, THE END is written on the last page of a book.)