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When describing intransitive actions that are commencing, I often end up
saying dumb things like 沸き始まる (わきはじまる) instead of 沸き始める (わきはじめる) - starting to
boil. Perhaps it's some meta pattern I am projecting from my knowledge of
English!?!

When should I use which, what are the rules and common exceptions?

Thank you
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2011-06-18T00:33:41.997
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2011-06-18T01:22:15.890
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question
verbs conjugations
How should I use 始める (はじめる) and 始まる (はじまる) as a suffix to intransitive verbs?
When you express the idea of "begin to [verb]", the pattern is masu stem +
はじめる, without exception, whether the verb is transitive or not. The
distinction between はじめる and はじまる only applies when the verb is used on its
own.

You could think of, say, 走り始める as having 走り as a sort of object of 始める, in
which case it's obvious that you would never use 始まる, though I don't know if
this is etymologically what's going on.
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2011-06-18T01:22:15.890
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2011-06-18T01:22:15.890
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answer