Learn how to use the verb "Start"
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| Hi, everybody! |
| Welcome back to Know Your Verbs. |
| My name is Alisha and in this episode, we're going to talk about the verb "start." |
| Let's get started! |
| The basic definition of the verb "start" is to begin or to initiate something. |
| Examples: |
| "Let's start dinner!" |
| "I started a new project this year!" |
| Now, let's look at the conjugations for this verb. |
| Present: start, starts |
| Past: started |
| Past participle: started |
| Progressive: starting |
| Now, let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb. |
| The first additional meaning is "to move suddenly." |
| To move suddenly like with surprise or shock. |
| Examples: |
| "She started when the phone rang." |
| "The dog starts every time he hears fireworks." |
| So, "to start" is like "to jump." It's like this quick motion of surprise or shock, usually because something like loud happened or something surprising happened. In the first example sentence, a phone rang and it maybe surprised the person, so, "She started when the phone rang." It means she likes kind of jump. She made this motion like she was scared or surprised. |
| In the second example sentence, it's fireworks. The dog is afraid of the fireworks, so the dog starts every time he hears fireworks. So the dog jumps, makes this motion every time he hears fireworks. |
| The second additional meaning is "to cause to operate." |
| For example: |
| "Go start the car." |
| "I'm starting my computer now." |
| So, you can see that we use this like with machines; computers, cars, airplanes, busses, these sorts of things that require operation. So, to begin that operation, to initiate that operation we use the verb "start." "Go start the car" means like begin the operations of the car, kind of. Or "I'm starting my computer now" means that the computer is coming on, the power is on, like it's beginning all of its operating processes. So, to call us to operate is another meaning of "start." |
| The third meaning is "to begin something with a person or thing." |
| This means like an activity of some kind. |
| Let's look at some examples: |
| "Let's start the meeting with sales." |
| "I want to start the conference with our keynote speaker." |
| So, here we see, "Let's start the meeting with sales" in the first example sentence. That means, let's begin meeting by talking about sales, or it could mean let's begin the meeting with a report from the sales department. So, it kind of depends on the situations specifically, but in either case, it means that topic in some way is going to be about sales. So, let's start the meeting with that thing, with that topic. |
| In the second example sentence, it's a specific person. So, "Let's start the conference with the keynote speaker" means the keynote speaker will be the person who begins. The first activity in the conference is the keynote speaker. We're beginning the conference with that keynote speaker's speech, presumably. So, third meaning, okay. |
| The fourth meaning of this verb is "to indicate the initial point for a range or a course or something similar." |
| Examples: |
| "Plans start from $5 per month." |
| "The race starts here." |
| So, in both of these examples, we see the beginning point. That's shown with the verb "start." So plans start from $5 a month shows that $5 a month is the cheapest plan. They start at this price. |
| In the second example sentence, "The race starts here," this refers to the point where the race begins. From here, the people will race, so it only refers to the starting point, the beginning point, the initial location. |
| Let's move on to some variations for this verb now. |
| The first variation is "to start something" or "to start anything." |
| This means "to make trouble." |
| Examples: |
| "Are you trying to start something?" |
| "Keep your mouth shut and don't start anything." |
| So both of these mean making trouble. |
| In the first example sentence, it's a question, "Are you trying to start something?" means are you trying to cause trouble? Are you trying to make trouble? Are you trying to start a fight? |
| In the second example sentence, it's a command, like "Keep your mouth shut and don't start anything." So, don't start trouble, don't make a scene, don't cause a fuss. So make trouble, start something or start anything, okay. |
| The second variation is "to start over." |
| To start over means to begin again. |
| Examples: |
| "I lost the file and had to start over." |
| "She started over in a new city." |
| So these just mean to begin again from zero. |
| So in the first example sentence, maybe all of us have had this experience. We delete a file or there's some mistake with a file, it disappears and you have to start over. You have to begin again from zero. |
| In the second example sentence, it's about starting over in a new city, so in other words, beginning a new life in a new city. We use "start over" to refer to that experience, okay. |
| So, I hope that you got some new ways to use the verb start from this video. Of course, if you have any questions or comments or if you want to try to make an example sentence, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. Thanks very much for watching this episode of Know Your Verbs and we'll see you again, soon. Bye-bye! |
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