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How to spell beginning

Beginning is spelled B-E-G-I-N-N-I-N-G. Begin ends in a stressed IN, so the N doubles before -ING: be-gin-NING.

hear itbe·gin·ning/bɪ'ɡɪnɪŋ/nounSilent and tricky

What it means: The start or first part of something.

In a sentence: The story has a happy beginning.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double n.

Same family: began, begun, beginner, beginner-level, rebegin. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Beginning comes from the verb 'begin', which goes back to Old English 'beginnan', meaning 'to open, to set about, to start'. The double 'n' in 'beginning' appears because English often doubles a final consonant before adding '-ing' when the stress is on the last syllable, as in 'begin' → 'beginning'.

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