# been vs began

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### been
*verb · IPA /bɪn/ · frequency rank #62*
past participle of be.

### began
*verb · IPA /bɪˈɡæn/ · frequency rank #894*
simple past of begin

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/been-vs-began