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# commencer — French to English

How French *commencer* is translated into English in open, checked parallel texts: 6 translations with example sentences.

The Elamur Dictionary has no French section yet; the English translations below link to their meanings where it has them.

Sentence pairs counted, by form: commencait (1), commence (19 070), commencent (6 391), commencer (31 780), commences (67), commencez (121), commencé (46 451), commencée (698), commencées (208), commencés (320). By style: everyday 1 840 · literary 38 · biblical 28 · parliamentary 12 425 · legal and administrative 5 562 · UN documents 85 214.

## start

Used about 29 411 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 1 056 · literary ≈ 1 · biblical ≈ 1 · parliamentary ≈ 4 830 · legal and administrative ≈ 2 674 · UN documents ≈ 20 850). Forms: start, started, starting. Meaning: [start in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/start/).

- On **commence** à manger.
  We are **starting** to eat.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by Marieexchange and cliff900 · checked, community translation · [\#5273824](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/5273824) [\#5273873](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/5273873))

- --Avant d'en **commencer** une seconde, si nous terminions la première?
  “Before we **start** on a second fishing excursion, suppose we complete the first?”
  ([Project Gutenberg books (Verne, Hugo, Maupassant and their translators)](https://www.gutenberg.org/) · Project Gutenberg, public domain · checked, professional translation · maupassant pierre jean, row 2235)

- C’est un avis que je donne là-dessus, car cela vous convient, à vous qui non seulement avez **commencé** à agir, mais qui en avez eu la volonté dès l’année dernière.
  I give advice in this: it is expedient for you who were the first to **start** a year ago, not only to do, but also to be willing.
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · 2CO 8:10)

- Elle a **commencé** avant la crise financière.
  It **started** before the financial crisis.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1192159)

- **Commencez** avec un bâtiment à l’arrêt.
  **Start** with a non-moving craft.
  ([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 5130366)

## begin

Used about 14 019 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 376 · literary ≈ 10 · biblical ≈ 10 · parliamentary ≈ 2 503 · legal and administrative ≈ 468 · UN documents ≈ 10 652). Forms: begin, beginning. Meaning: [begin in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/begin/).

- Quand cela **commence**-t-il ?
  When does it **begin**?
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by Aiji and CK · checked, community translation · [\#42781](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/42781) [\#135957](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/135957))

- --À **commencer** par mon père.
  “**Beginning** with my father!”
  ([Project Gutenberg books (Verne, Hugo, Maupassant and their translators)](https://www.gutenberg.org/) · Project Gutenberg, public domain · checked, professional translation · hugo les miserables, row 22089)

- **Commencer** une querelle, c’est ouvrir une digue; Avant que la dispute s’anime, retire-toi.
  The **beginning** of strife is like breaching a dam, therefore stop contention before quarreling breaks out.
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · PRO 17:14)

- Je **commence** par l'emploi.
  Let me **begin** with employment.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1922421)

- Pour **commencer**, une seule mesure est faite pour chaque état de charge.
  To **begin** with, a single measurement shall be made in each loading condition.
  ([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 5426180)

## began

Used about 12 761 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 91 · literary ≈ 3 · biblical ≈ 6 · parliamentary ≈ 1 185 · legal and administrative ≈ 371 · UN documents ≈ 11 105).

- Le bébé a **commencé** à ramper.
  The baby **began** to crawl.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by lbdx and CK · checked, community translation · [\#45867](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/45867) [\#10546895](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/10546895))

- --Voilà longtemps que je te sais jaloux de moi, depuis le jour où tu as **commencé** à dire «la veuve» parce que tu as compris que cela me faisait mal.
  “I have known for a long time that you were jealous of me, ever since the day when you first **began** to talk of ‘the widow’ because you knew it annoyed me.”
  ([Project Gutenberg books (Verne, Hugo, Maupassant and their translators)](https://www.gutenberg.org/) · Project Gutenberg, public domain · checked, professional translation · maupassant pierre jean, row 1734)

- en disant: Cet homme a **commencé** à bâtir, et il n’a pu achever?
  saying, ‘This man **began** to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · LUK 14:30)

- Je voudrais terminer par où j'ai **commencé**.
  My last point is to end where I **began**.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 37931)

- La première période a **commencé** à la date du premier Conseil d'association et s'est terminée le 31 décembre 2006.
  The first period **began** on the date of the first Association Council meeting and ended on 31 December 2006.
  ([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 44825)

## begun

Used about 10 190 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 45 · literary ≈ 10 · biblical ≈ 7 · parliamentary ≈ 1 449 · legal and administrative ≈ 293 · UN documents ≈ 8 385).

- J'ai déjà **commencé**.
  I've already **begun**.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by nbrr and CK · checked, community translation · [\#8399074](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/8399074) [\#5149951](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/5149951))

- L'information avait **commencé**.
  The investigation had **begun**.
  ([Project Gutenberg books (Verne, Hugo, Maupassant and their translators)](https://www.gutenberg.org/) · Project Gutenberg, public domain · checked, professional translation · hugo les miserables, row 18862)

- Les Juifs s’engagèrent à faire ce qu’ils avaient déjà **commencé** et ce que Mardochée leur écrivit.
  The Jews accepted the custom that they had **begun**, as Mordecai had written to them,
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · EST 9:23)

- Les premières discussions sur le projet de déclaration viennent de **commencer**.
  The first discussions on the draft statement have just **begun**.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1774185)

- Aucune modification ne doit être apportée une fois que l’essai a **commencé**.
  No alteration shall be made once the test procedure has **begun**.
  ([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 5597617)

## before

Used about 3 585 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 6 · literary ≈ 1 · parliamentary ≈ 132 · legal and administrative ≈ 273 · UN documents ≈ 3 173). Meaning: [before in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/before/).

- Nous devons décharger ce camion avant qu'il **commence** à pleuvoir.
  We need to get this truck unloaded **before** it starts raining.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by olivier and CK · checked, community translation · [\#5625127](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/5625127) [\#5627702](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/5627702))

- Avant les importants travaux **commencés** en 1833, la voirie souterraine de Paris était sujette à des effondrements subits.
  **Before** the important works, undertaken in 1833, the subterranean drain of Paris was subject to these sudden slides.
  ([Project Gutenberg books (Verne, Hugo, Maupassant and their translators)](https://www.gutenberg.org/) · Project Gutenberg, public domain · checked, professional translation · hugo les miserables, row 27904)

- Avant même que **commence** sa présidence européenne, son château de cartes s'écroule.
  Even **before** his European presidency begins, his house of cards is collapsing.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 1093148)

- Oui, avant de **commencer** à percevoir la première pension de vieillesse
  Yes, **before** receiving the first old-age pension
  ([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 2354416)

- However, the tracking **commences** only when a detainee is produced before court, not at the point of arrest
  However, the tracking commences only when a detainee is produced **before** court, not at the point of arrest
  ([United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0](https://conferences.unite.un.org/UNCorpus) · Source: United Nations, United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0 (Ziemski, Junczys-Dowmunt and Pouliquen 2016) · checked, professional translation · segment 20233383)

## work

Used about 2 581 times in the texts (parliamentary ≈ 88 · UN documents ≈ 2 493). Meaning: [work in the Elamur Dictionary](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/work/).

- Mais nous attendons avec impatience de pouvoir **commencer** le travail sur la directive correspondante.
  However, we look forward to being able to commence **work** on this directive as well.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 181702)

- Les travaux sur les méthodes de spécification des prescriptions ont **commencé** à la réunion de Séoul.
  **Work** commenced at the Seoul Forum meeting on the RSM.
  ([United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0](https://conferences.unite.un.org/UNCorpus) · Source: United Nations, United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0 (Ziemski, Junczys-Dowmunt and Pouliquen 2016) · checked, professional translation · segment 12730591)

- Dès demain, je rencontrerai mes collègues commissaires pour m' assurer que les travaux **commencent** immédiatement et que les objectifs fixés soient atteints.
  Tomorrow, I am going to meet my fellow Commissioners to ensure that **work** starts immediately and that the various different objectives set are achieved.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 35757)

- Une bonne partie de ce travail avait **commencé** avant même que le coroner ne formule ses conclusions.
  Much of this **work** had already commenced prior to the coroner &apos; s findings.
  ([United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0](https://conferences.unite.un.org/UNCorpus) · Source: United Nations, United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0 (Ziemski, Junczys-Dowmunt and Pouliquen 2016) · checked, professional translation · segment 27647967)

- Le Comité des sanctions concernant la Côte d &apos; Ivoire devrait **commencer** ses travaux début décembre.
  The Côte d &apos; Ivoire Sanctions Committee is expected to commence its **work** in early December.
  ([United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0](https://conferences.unite.un.org/UNCorpus) · Source: United Nations, United Nations Parallel Corpus v1.0 (Ziemski, Junczys-Dowmunt and Pouliquen 2016) · checked, professional translation · segment 12554969)

## More sentences

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

- Je pense que nous devrions **commencer** à rentrer.
  I think we should be getting back.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by sacredceltic and CK · checked, community translation · [\#2408456](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/2408456) [\#2412135](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/2412135))

- Ils devraient **commencer** par balayer devant leur porte avant de critiquer leurs voisins.
  Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by Myrano\_ and CK · checked, community translation · [\#1577](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/1577) [\#14041890](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/14041890))

- Pour **commencer**, vous devez lire ce livre.
  First of all, you have to read this book.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by phil77 and CM · checked, community translation · [\#32815](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/32815) [\#900667](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/900667))

## Grammar

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

## 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=fr-en&word=commencer).


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.