commencer

From commence +‎ -er.

commencer (plural commencers)

1. One who commences.

• commancer (obsolete)

Inherited from Middle French commencer, from Old French comencier, from Vulgar Latin *cominitiāre.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.mɑ̃.se/

• Audio:

  (file)

commencer

1. to begin, commence

   Ça commence à m’énerver.

   It's starting to get on my nerves.

   Il commençait à pleuvoir quand nous partîmes.

   It was beginning to rain when we left.

   • 1956, Laurent Adler, À fleur de peau, Paris: Éditions de Paris:

     Georges poussa la porte, ouverte comme d’habitude. Il traversa à pas comptés le hall au carrelage glissant, trop bien astiqué, et commença de monter l’escalier.

     Georges pushed the door, which was open as usual. He gingerly crossed the hall with the slippery tiles, which had been polished too well, and began climbing up the stairs.

• commencer à is most commonly used, and commencer de is literary.

This verb is part of a group of -er verbs for which 'c' is softened to a 'ç' before the vowels 'a' and 'o'.

• initier

• Haitian Creole: komanse
• → Esperanto: komenci

• “commencer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Old French comencier.

commencer

1. (transitive, intransitive) to start; to begin

• As parler except c becomes ç before a and o. May remain c in older manuscripts.
• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

• French: commencer (see there for further descendants)