Which to use
“began” and “begun” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #894
- “began” frequency rank
- #3,863
- “begun” frequency rank
- 4757
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | began | begun |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past of begin | past participle of begin |
Where the eye mixes began and begun
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. began (/bɪˈɡæn/) and begun (/bɪˈɡʌn/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “began” becomes u in “begun”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
began is recorded at frequency rank #894, classified as averb, pronounced /bɪˈɡæn/. begun is at rank #3,863, tagged as averb, pronounced /bɪˈɡʌn/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 4757, this pair ranks #517,799 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of began vs begun
Shared letters: begn. Private to "began": a. Private to "begun": u.
"began" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "begun" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC