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# begin — English to French

How English *begin* is translated into French in open, checked parallel texts: 1 translation with example sentences.

What it means: [begin in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/begin/).

Sentence pairs counted, by form: begin (34 883), begins (5 475). By style: everyday 352 · literary 27 · biblical 24 · parliamentary 7 044 · legal and administrative 1 563 · UN documents 31 348.

## commence

Used about 18 138 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 235 · literary ≈ 12 · biblical ≈ 3 · parliamentary ≈ 3 375 · legal and administrative ≈ 798 · UN documents ≈ 13 715). Forms: commence, commencer.

- Let the dance **begin**.
  Que la danse **commence**.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by maaster and Rovo · checked, community translation · [\#12154449](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/12154449) [\#12539483](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/12539483))

- “It **begins** with a kiss,” said Blachevelle.
  --Cela **commence** par un baiser, dit Blachevelle.
  ([Project Gutenberg books (Verne, Hugo, Maupassant and their translators)](https://www.gutenberg.org/) · Project Gutenberg, public domain · checked, professional translation · hugo les miserables, row 3159)

- For the time has come for judgment to **begin** with the household of God. If it **begins** first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God?
  Car c’est le moment où le jugement va commencer par la maison de Dieu. Or, si c’est par nous qu’il **commence**, quelle sera la fin de ceux qui n’obéissent pas à l’Évangile de Dieu?
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · 1PE 4:17)

- Change, as much else, **begins** at home.
  Le changement, comme tant d'autres choses, **commence** chez soi.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1246841)

- That period of withdrawal shall **begin**
  Ce délai de rétractation **commence** à courir:
  ([DGT-TM v2021](https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/language-technology-resources/dgt-translation-memory_en) · Source: European Commission, DGT-TM (Steinberger et al. 2012), re-used under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU; the Commission keeps ownership of the data · checked, professional translation · segment 1440359)

## More sentences

Sentence pairs with the word where no single translation was found: it may be translated by a phrase, or left out.

- You should think before you **begin** to speak.
  Tu devrais réfléchir avant de parler.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by CK and epsilom68 · checked, community translation · [\#63387](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/63387) [\#4983010](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/4983010))

- If we **begin** early, we can finish by lunch.
  Si nous commençons tôt, nous pouvons finir pour le déjeuner.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by CK and sacredceltic · checked, community translation · [\#274025](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/274025) [\#452892](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/452892))

- I can't even **begin** to imagine what she would've done, had you not stepped in.
  Je n’ose même pas imaginer ce qu’elle aurait fait si tu n’étais pas intervenue.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by hecko and gillux · checked, community translation · [\#10480702](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/10480702) [\#13874984](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/13874984))

## Grammar

Notes on grammar and translation on Mova: [English grammar](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/) · [French grammar](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/) · [translating between English and French](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/pairs/en-fr/) · [translating from English](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/from-en/) · [translating into French](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/into-fr/).

## About these examples

Translations are found by how often the two words stand in the same sentence pairs, and the highlighted words are matched automatically: both are approximate. Counts are estimated from a sample of each source. Every example names its source and licence. [Submit a better translation or example](https://md.translate.elamur.ai/free/en/submit/?pair=en-fr&word=begin).


Every example is quoted under its source's licence and credited with it; the rest of the site is open under the Elamur Cosmic License.