I started my new job at the beginning of the year.
✗Don’t say: in the beginning of the year
nCOLLOCATIONS
adjectives
a new beginning
The country needed a new government and a new beginning.
verbs
mark the beginning of something (also signal/herald the beginning of something) (=show that something is starting to happen)
This event marked the beginning of a ten-year worldwide depression.
see the beginning of something (=be the time when something important starts to happen)
The 1970s saw the beginning of a technological revolution.
phrases
right at/from the beginning (=used for emphasis)
That’s what I suggested right at the beginning.
at/from the very beginning (=used for emphasis)
He had been lying to me from the very beginning.
start at the beginning (=start a story or activity at the first part)
Just start at the beginning and tell us exactly what happened.
from beginning to end
The whole project was full of problems from beginning to end.
something is just/only the beginning (=used to emphasize that many more things will happen)
Signing the contract is just the beginning of a long process.
THESAURUS
beginning the first part of something such as a story, event, or period of time 开始,开头
The beginning of the movie is very violent.
这部影片的开头很暴力。
Let’s go back to the beginning.
让我们回到开始的地方。
start the beginning of something, or the way something begins 开始
Tomorrow marks the start of the presidential election campaign.
明天总统竞选活动正式开始。
It was not a good start to the day.
对这一天而言,这不是个好的开始。
nThe runners lined up for the start of the race.
commencement formal the beginning of something – used especially in officialcontexts 开端,开始〔尤用于正式语境〕
the commencement of the academic year
学年的开始
nthe commencement of the contract
origin the point from which something starts to exist 起源,起因
He wrote a book about the origins of the universe.
他写了本有关宇宙起源的书。
The tradition has its origins in medieval times.
这一传统起源于中世纪。
the onset of something the time when something bad begins, such as illness, old age, or coldweather 某(坏)事的开始[发作]
the onset of winter
冬天的来临
An active lifestyle can delay the onset of many diseases common to aging.
积极的生活方式能够延缓许多老年常见疾病的发作。
dawn literary the beginning of an important period of time in history 〔某个重要历史时期的〕开端
People have worshipped gods since the dawn of civilization.
自有文明以来人们就敬奉神明。
birth the beginning of something important that will change many people’s lives 〔将改变许多人生活的重要事情的〕诞生,出现
the birth of democracy in South Africa
南非民主的诞生
the birth of the environmental movement
环境保护运动的起始
Examples from the Corpus
beginning• School children are taught that stories should have a beginning, a middle and an end.• That was how we'd set it up from the beginning.• From the beginning it was decided that the Group should be entirely independent of Aldus.• It was the beginning of the end.• The beginning of the movie is very violent.• Joan's been involved in disabledsport from its very beginning, at the ParaplegicGames at Stoke Mandeville in 1948.• The author tells us who the killer is at the very beginning of the novel.
beginning of• The solstice marks the beginning ofwinter.