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 Book Expressions

[Sidle Jinks]

Hi Alan!

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