Began vs Begun

Compare it Versus > Grammar > Difference between began and begun
First published on 23rd of October 2015, updated most recently on 3rd January 2023
Edited by Mary S., secondary school English teacher

Began and begun both originate from ‘begin’

‘Began’ and ‘begun’ both originate from the root verb ‘begin’ which means to start or to commence or even to set something into motion.

Being a basic verb, ‘begin’ is often subject to modification depending on the context in which it is applied and one of the parts of speech that play a significant role in this respect is tense.

For a sentence to be correctly framed, it is imperative for the words to be in the right tense and even the slightest confusion could lead to wrong usage of words.

Began

While ‘began’ is the past tense of ‘begin’, ‘begun’ is the past participle of the same word, ‘beginning’ being the progressive tense.

Hence, if you are referring to something that might have started in simple past tense, then you must use the word ‘began’.

For example:
the game began precisely on time.

This sentence points towards an event that has already occurred in the past and also provides details pertaining to its occurrence.

She began to fret at the mention of a storm.

This is another sentence which shows the correct usage of the word ‘began’.

Begun

‘Begun’ on the other hand is the past participle which cannot stand independently as a verb and needs to be supported by another verb. This verb, which plays a supportive role to a past participle is referred to as an auxiliary or helping verb.

Unlike the past tense, ‘begun’ is used to indicate an event that may have started but is yet to reach its completion.

For example, in the sentence:
I have begun my course in website designing

– the implication is that while you might have started a course on website designing, it is still continuing and is yet to be finished.

Difference between begun and began

In addition to the tense as above, another difference that sets ‘began’ apart from ‘begun’ is that while ‘began’ can be used on its own, ‘begun’ requires the support of an auxiliary verb in order to be used in a sentence.

So you may think of yesterday as an example if you want to use ‘began’ and think of your current situation for using ‘begun’ and needs to be preceded by the word ‘have’.

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References

1. English Grammar Present and Past Tense from BritishCouncil.org online, accessed in January 2023, link to present tense page here