Began ...

mkcbunny · Nov 9, 2008

Hi Grammar Gurus,

I need some help with the pesky word "began," specifically how to determine which tense to use for a verb that is paired with it.

For example:
She began to pluck grass from the lawn.
vs.
She began plucking grass from the lawn.

I've discovered a fair number of begans in my novel as I make the final (!!) edits, and now I am thoroughly confused as to how these various instances should read. (None of them are cases in which a simple "she plucked" would do. Continuous action is involved. At least I think so; I need to crack down on that, too!)

Can anyone explain proper usage? Thanks!

Ms Hollands · Nov 9, 2008

I tend to prever 'ing' endings simply because here in France, French people speaking English always say things ilke "stop to be silly" instead of "stop being silly", so when I read 'to (verb)', I now hear it in a French voice.

Apart from that, I have no hard facts on which one is grammatically more correct and I cannot explain its proper usage. I'd probably use 'started' simply because I really dislike 'began/begun' (some weird brain connection with 'beget/begot/begat'?).

If you've got lots of these and you want to alter some, you could vary it by looking at the bigger picture or sticking some other factor in there. Maybe just a small change like: "She started the tedious task of plucking grass from the lawn." Or perhaps something a bit bigger: "She bent down and plucked some grass, dreading how long it would take her to finish." or "She plucked a piece of grass, and then another. Eventually (blah blah blah)..."

Hope I'm not telling you to eat eggs here...sometimes it's just hard to break a writing habit.

qwerty · Nov 9, 2008

Either of the two examples seem fine to me, but it may depend on what precedes or follows the sentence. Or even if it stands alone as a complete sentence. The fact that you say it's part of continuous action suggests you have to take other verb endings into account.

A fair number of begans is a bit worrying. Do you need them all?

kct webber · Nov 9, 2008

Both of your examples are correct.

dpaterso · Nov 9, 2008

mkcbunny said:
For example:
She began to pluck grass from the lawn.
vs.
She began plucking grass from the lawn.

I think they're both OK.

Though you could as easily skip the "began" e.g.

She plucked grass from the lawn.

An alternative is to make starting the action more relevant, e.g.

She'd only just begun to pluck grass from the lawn when the phone rang.

-Derek

Bufty · Nov 9, 2008

Nothing wrong with either of them, but if the writer is noticing the frequency of 'began to' usage, chances are the reader may also spot it and it may become an irritant.

Everyone knows what '...began to...' means but more often than not the prose -especially that of a beginner- will be strengthened by dropping that phrase and finding a clearer way to convey the intended image.

There may be cases where it is the right word to use, but in general how is a reader to imagine a character who always 'begins to' walk or speak or whistle or smile or jump etc.? Simply state that they do whatever the action is.

mkcbunny · Nov 9, 2008

Thanks. When I say "fair number/a lot," I mean about a dozen. Over the course of an entire book, I don't know if anyone would notice that as being overly frequent. I'm just doing word searches for these potential trouble items, and I had no idea which of these was right. Or how to know.

Thanks for all of the advice.

I might try to shake up a few. One thing that's frustrating is the butterfly effect in finding repetitions. You sometimes just generate clunky passages when you go back and try to avoid repeating every little thing. Or you simply substitute other redundancies in place of the ones you're trying to correct. As a word-rep Nazi, I sometimes have to just let it go. ...

mkcbunny · Nov 9, 2008

Bufty said:
There may be cases where it is the right word to use, but in general how is a reader to imagine a character who always 'begins to' walk or speak or whistle or smile or jump etc.? Simply state that they do whatever the action is.

Thanks. In the case above and a couple of the ones that probably need to remain, the action in question continues during a conversation or further action. Seems to me if I say "She plucked grass from the lawn," then it's over and done with after that event, vs. that she started something that continues until interrupted.

I have to back through them to figure out which ones really need to be there and which don't. I still don't know what the grammatical difference is between the two examples provided, but if they are both correct, then I suppose it's a matter of how the sentence fits in with what comes before and after ...

mscelina · Nov 9, 2008

What I tell my writers is "Why just let them begin to do something? Just let them do it." The same goes for began followed by a participle.

I tend to strike 90% of the 'began to' or 'started tos' in the manuscripts that come across my desk. A dozen of them isn't that worrying, but there are a lot of writers that use 'began to' as a crutch. As a rule, it's acceptable when a character is setting out upon a series of consecutive or repetitive actions. As a grammatical device, it's usually best avoided and replaced with a definitive predicate.

Maryn · Nov 9, 2008

Among the things on my search-and-destroy list are began, started, and tried. It's extremely rare for my work to be better with those in place. All they do is separate the reader from the activity by means of the author's verbal hesitation. My characters don't begin the long walk home, start imagining they hear footsteps, or try to get there before dark. They head home, imagining they hear footsteps, and either they reach home before dark or they don't. Mwa-ha-ha!

While I understand what you're saying in In the case above and a couple of the ones that probably need to remain, the action in question continues during a conversation or further action. Seems to me if I say "She plucked grass from the lawn," then it's over and done with after that event, vs. that she started something that continues until interrupted, I think you're not giving your reader credit for understanding when an activity is ongoing. Or perhaps you're not phrasing it in the best way. Maybe She plucked grass from the lawn. "Why is everybody so mean?" she said to no one. Pluck. "I hate this place." This time, her fingers dug at the turf. would get it across just as well.

Maryn, realizing too late she wrote your story as she'd write it, not as you'd write it

FennelGiraffe · Nov 9, 2008

mkcbunny said:
I still don't know what the grammatical difference is between the two examples provided

As everyone else has said, both "she began plucking" and "she began to pluck" are grammatically correct. Although I feel there ought to be some difference in meaning, I can't find it. I suspect the absence of an answer from anyone else means whatever distinction exists must be extremely obscure. (Since some very knowledgeable people have already responded.)

mkcbunny said:
In the case above and a couple of the ones that probably need to remain, the action in question continues during a conversation or further action. Seems to me if I say "She plucked grass from the lawn," then it's over and done with after that event, vs. that she started something that continues until interrupted.

You're correct that "She plucked grass from the lawn" usually describes a single, complete action. On the other hand, "She plucked grass from the lawn while he paced up and down the path" has duration.

An element of continuity is intrinsic to storytelling. It's dangerous to generalize here--the devil is in the details--but when you show a character performing a potentially ongoing action, there is usually an implication that action continues until you show the character doing something new.

There's also the question of emphasis. Which is more important: the act of plucking or the act of beginning? Dpaterso's suggestion, "She'd only just begun to pluck grass from the lawn when the phone rang" focuses on beginning. "She was plucking grass from the lawn when the phone rang" focuses on plucking.

Dawnstorm · Nov 10, 2008

FennelGiraffe said:
There's also the question of emphasis. Which is more important: the act of plucking or the act of beginning? Dpaterso's suggestion, "She'd only just begun to pluck grass from the lawn when the phone rang" focuses on beginning. "She was plucking grass from the lawn when the phone rang" focuses on plucking.

Quite true. In the former (had begun), I imagine her annoyed at the interruption. In the latter (was plucking), I imagine her rummaging for a hankerchief to wipe her hands clean. (All out of context, of course.)

As everyone else has said, both "she began plucking" and "she began to pluck" are grammatically correct. Although I feel there ought to be some difference in meaning, I can't find it.

If someone knows about a difference, I'd be interested to hear it, too. I have a hunch, but nothing I can pin down.

Mr. Chuckletrousers · Nov 10, 2008

Dawnstorm said:
If someone knows about a difference, I'd be interested to hear it, too. I have a hunch, but nothing I can pin down.

This is one of the instances where the gerund has pretty much the same meaning as the infinitive. "To begin" is one of those verbs (along with its semantic twin, "to start") that can take either gerunds or infinitives as direct objects without any change in meaning:

I started to walk.
I started walking.

Contrast this with the verb "to stop":

I stopped smoking.
I stopped to smoke.

English is just that weird.

Carmy · Nov 14, 2008

Check a thesaurus. There are several free on line.

mkcbunny · Nov 15, 2008

Thanks everyone. As usual, I got answers to questions I hadn't even asked yet. All very helpful.

I was able to cut most of them out. It felt good to cross each one off the list.

mkcbunny · Nov 15, 2008

Maryn said:
Among the things on my search-and-destroy list are began, started, and tried. It's extremely rare for my work to be better with those in place. All they do is separate the reader from the activity by means of the author's verbal hesitation. My characters don't begin the long walk home, start imagining they hear footsteps, or try to get there before dark. They head home, imagining they hear footsteps, and either they reach home before dark or they don't. Mwa-ha-ha!

Yeah. Point taken. Just get to it. Why "begin" anything. Oddly, my bad behavior is limited to "began." I only had one "started," and it was the other meaning of the word: a reaction to something surprising. Now I have to search for those "tried"s, which is much trickier, as my character attempts and fails at many things. But I knew that one was a problem as I was writing and *tried* to avoid it as much as possible. The "began"s kind of threw me when I did a word count. (More than previously reported, sigh.) Little devils.

Maryn said:
I think you're not giving your reader credit for understanding when an activity is ongoing. Or perhaps you're not phrasing it in the best way. Maybe She plucked grass from the lawn. "Why is everybody so mean?" she said to no one. Pluck. "I hate this place." This time, her fingers dug at the turf. would get it across just as well.

Maryn, realizing too late she wrote your story as she'd write it, not as you'd write it

While that example does make sense, it's also five times as long. In some cases, it does work to expand the idea, but there's also the trick of rhythm and replacing a very brief sentence with several sentences. Sometimes a more developed treatment adds to the story, but sometimes you have to keep the flow by substituting another shortie.

For most of the changes, I:
(a) changed to past tense.
(b) found an equally brief way to restructure the sentence.
(c) cut the phrase.
And in one case, "began" was actually synonymous with "opened" vs. "started" and a horse of a different color. I replaced it with "opened."

I found many alternatives to the "began" crisis! Funny how you don't notice these habits until you look for them.

The ones I kept were scrutinized and accepted after much internal debate. One might still get the axe.

Thanks!

Began ...

mkcbunny

Bufflehead

Ms Hollands

Cow lover

qwerty

exiled Brit

kct webber

Squirrel, Sekrit type, 1 ea.

dpaterso

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

mkcbunny

Bufflehead

mkcbunny

Bufflehead

mscelina

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

Maryn

I Tried

FennelGiraffe

It's green they say

Dawnstorm

punny user title, here

Mr. Chuckletrousers

Sith happens.

Carmy

mkcbunny

Bufflehead

mkcbunny

Bufflehead