aspect N4 common casualpolitewritten
〜始める — begin to ~ / start ~ing
〜始める ・ はじめる
Builds on 連用形（ます形）
Meaning
- begin to ~ / start ~ing — marks the onset of an action or change
Key sentence
赤ちゃんが泣き始めた。
The baby started crying.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb (ます-stem) | V-stem + 始める | 食べる → 食べ始める |
Examples
雨が降り始めた。
It started to rain.
去年から日本語を習い始めた。
I started learning Japanese last year.
桜が咲き始めている。
The cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom.
Easily confused with
〜出す 始める is a neutral 'begin', fine for planned or gradual starts (勉強し始める — start studying). 出す stresses a sudden, often involuntary burst (泣き出す — burst into tears) and resists deliberate, scheduled actions. 〜終わる The matched pair: 始める marks the onset, 終わる the completion of the same kind of action (読み始める / 読み終わる).
Notes
- 始める is the transitive 'begin (something)'; the action verb supplies the meaning. Its intransitive twin 始まる ('something begins') is a plain verb, not this aspect suffix.
See 〜始める in real sentences
Jengo shows 〜始める the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.