begin 和 start 后面可以跟动词不定式,也可以跟 -ing 形式,意思通常没有明显区别。
She began playing / to play the guitar when she was six. 她六岁开始弹吉他。
He started talking / to talk about golf, but everybody went out of the room.
他开始谈论打高尔夫球,但大家都溜出了房间。
在 begin 和 start 的进行式之后,要用动词不定式。
I'm beginning to learn karate. 我刚开始学空手道。
(不能说:I'm beginning learning karate. )
understand, realise 和 know 出现在 begin 和 start 后面时,要用不定式形式。
I slowly began to understand how she felt. 我慢慢开始明白她的感受。
(不能说:... began understanding...)
He started to realise that if you wanted to eat you had to work. 他开始认识到
要吃饭就得工作。 (不能说:...started realising ...)
(以上摘自《牛津英语用法指南》第四版 105.10)