18 JUNE 1942, Page 14

A LOST VERB SIR,—I am anxious to be informed by

any of your readers who are also writers what has happened to the verb " begin." No modern author now uses it I notice. The following quotations will illustrate my point: "He started to think " ; " The Germans started to arrive "; "The fire started to burn." I feel sure that the opening sentence of a modern edition of the Bible would be: " At the start, &c." I presume that writers must have a good and sufficient reason for thus:eliminating the verb I allude to, and I should very much like to know the reason for it.