Start, begin, commence

[Sidle Jinks]

Hello everybody!

Could you please tell me, what's the difference between these three verbs: to start, to begin and to commence?

Thank you in advance.
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Factum non fabula

[Alan]

Hi Sidle Jinks,

Always a good question! Start and begin can be interchanged without much difficulty:

When does the show start/begin?
When do we begin/start our holiday/journey?

School begins/starts at 8 am

Commence is usually used as a sort of official sounding word: The prize giving ceremony commences at 2 pm
The parliamentary session commences in October.

Hope this helps

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Phrasal Verbs/look

[Sidle Jinks]

Hi Alan!

Thank you very much for your explanation! It really helped!
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Factum non fabula

[Yemel]

What do I say a new life has started or a new life has begun? Appreciate

[Naz]

Hi Yemel,
The answer is that both are correct.But actually the thing is that when in conversation one time we use "begin" so at the other time we use "start".Why? due to variety of words.E.G Our new life has begun that is why I am not in the mood to start any quarrel.
Naz.
(I hope it may be useful) :