～始める, ～終わる, ～続ける in Japanese: Beginning, Ending, and Continuing an Action

～始める, ～終わる, and ～続ける let you mark when an action begins, continues, or ends. Each suffix attaches to the masu-stem (連用形) of another verb.¹² Together they form the productive N4 entry into the wider compound-verb system. They are worth treating as a set because each one takes a different stance on the same action lifecycle.³⁴

Overview

The three V2 suffixes share one frame. Here, V1 means the first verb, and V2 means the second verb. Each suffix fixes one point on the timeline of a V1 action. 始める marks the beginning, 続ける says the action runs on, and 終わる reports that it has reached its natural end.⁵³ All three attach to V1's masu-stem, and only V2 inflects. That is why textbooks group them as a set rather than as three unrelated verbs.⁶⁷⁴

Why these three belong together

Each of the three appears as the second member (V2) of a productive syntactic V-V compound, attached to the masu-stem of V1.¹² In Kageyama's typology, these are syntactic compound verbs, not lexical ones. V1 functions as the lower predicate of V2, and the pattern remains open class, meaning new combinations can be formed productively.¹⁸

The shared frame is aspectual, meaning it concerns how an action unfolds over time. Standard descriptive grammars treat 始める, 続ける, and 終わる as the three core 補助動詞-style (auxiliary-verb-style) V2s of アスペクト on the masu-stem. They are also the N4 entry into the broader compound-verb inventory that includes ～かける, ～だす, ～終える, and ～尽くす.³⁴

Where they sit in the compound-verb system

Kageyama (1993) splits Japanese V-V compounds into lexical (語彙的複合動詞) and syntactic (統語的複合動詞) types.¹ The three suffixes treated here all sit on the syntactic side. Three classic diagnostics show why.

The first diagnostic is sō suru substitution. In a syntactic compound, V1 can be replaced by そうし- (the pro-form meaning "do so"). Hanako wa gohan o tabe-hajimeru. Tarō mo sō shi-hajimeta is grammatical, while the same substitution inside a lexical compound such as 受け継ぐ fails.⁸

The second diagnostic is sa-hen insertion. Light-verb V1s formed with -する combine freely with syntactic V2s. For example, 運動し始める is fine. They resist many lexical V2s.¹⁸

The third diagnostic is passive scope. In a syntactic compound, the passive marker attaches inside, on V1 (食べられ始める). In a lexical compound, the passive can only attach to V2.¹ All three of ～始める, ～終わる, and ～続ける pass these diagnostics. NINJAL places them inside the syntactic / aspectual V2 inventory alongside ～かける, ～かかる, ～だす, ～まくる, ～終える, and ～尽くす.²⁹³

A functional-syntax account makes the same point in different terms. It treats 始める, 続ける, and 終わる as aspectual functional heads sitting above the lexical VP. This predicts both their productivity and the way they select V1.¹⁰

JLPT placement and frequency

All three are N4 grammar points in major textbook treatments. Genki II introduces them in Lessons 14 and 23, and Minna no Nihongo Chūkyū I introduces them in Lesson 6.^67111213 The standalone verbs 始める and 始まる sit at N5; 終える is treated as N3 vocabulary in most lists.¹⁴

Frequency in the V2 slot is sharply skewed toward 始める. NINJAL-derived counts rank 始める first by a wide margin, with around 2,373 distinct compounds attested. The same data set has 続ける at roughly 1,016 and 終わる at roughly 293.¹⁵ All three are register-neutral and appear in conversation, news prose, instructional writing, and academic texts.¹⁵¹⁶

Approximate counts, not exact frequencies

The NINJAL-derived totals above come from a research dump of the Compound Verb Lexicon and are best read as a ranking, not as precise corpus frequencies.¹⁵

Form: V-stem + 始める / 終わる / 続ける

The construction has three steps: derive V1's masu-stem, attach the V2 suffix in its dictionary form, then inflect V2 for everything that follows. This recipe is the same regardless of V1's verb class or transitivity.¹⁴

Step 1: take V1 to its masu-stem (連用形)

The masu-stem is the form that surfaces immediately before -ます.⁶⁴ This short reference list covers most cases a learner meets at N4:

Dictionary form	Masu-stem
食たべる	食たべ
読よむ	読よみ
書かく	書かき
降ふる	降ふり
走はしる	走はしり
待まつ	待まち
話はなす	話はなし
来くる	来き
する	し

Step 2: attach the suffix in its dictionary form

Attach the pieces directly: V1 stem plus V2 in its dictionary form, written as one word.⁶¹⁷

食たべ + 始はじめる = 食たべ始はじめる⁶
"to start eating"

読よみ + 終おわる = 読よみ終おわる⁶
"to finish reading"

待まち + 続つづける = 待まち続つづける⁶
"to keep waiting"

Inside the compound, V1 is written in kanji even when the bare stem-noun would normally appear in kana. This print convention appears throughout the NINJAL lexicon entries.²

Step 3: conjugate the suffix, not V1

All tense, negation, and politeness attach to V2. V1 stays frozen at the masu-stem.⁶⁴

Form	食べ始める	読み終わる	待ち続ける
Polite non-past	食べ始めます	読み終わります	待ち続けます
Plain past	食べ始めた	読み終わった	待ち続けた
Plain negative	食べ始めない	読み終わらない	待ち続けない
Te-form	食べ始めて	読み終わって	待ち続けて
Potential	食べ始められる	読み終われる	待ち続けられる

V1 never inflects in this construction

A learner who wants to say "started eating" sometimes writes ×食べた始める. The compound inflects only on V2. The correct form is 食べ始めた.¹⁸⁴

Negation works the same way. "Haven't finished reading yet" is まだ読み終わっていない, not ×まだ読まなくて終わる.¹¹

Verb-class compatibility at a glance

V2 selection has real restrictions. 始める takes almost any dynamic V1. 終わる prefers V1s with a built-in endpoint, and 続ける requires a V1 with internal duration.

V2	Accepts	Resists
～始める	any dynamic V1 (activity, semelfactive, telic)	very few restrictions in the productive sense
～終わる	V1s with an inherent endpoint (eating, reading, writing, work)	stative V1s; V1s already meaning completion (×知り終わる, ×着き終わる, ×済ませ終わる)
～続ける	continuous or repeated V1s	pure statives (×ある続ける, ×いる続ける); punctual V1s in the literal aspectual reading (×死に続ける, ×着き続ける)

The diagnostic behind the table is Kindaichi's four-way aspect-class split (state / continuous / punctual / type-4). 続ける's restrictions in particular track that hierarchy closely.¹⁸

～始める: marking the onset of an action

Core meaning

～始める marks the moment the V1 action begins, without implying how the onset happens. The onset is presented as neutral and often planned.¹⁹²⁰ The continuation is left open: the speaker does not commit to whether the action will go on or stop.¹⁹

雨あめが降ふり始はじめた。⁶¹²
"It started to rain."

九時くじになってから働はたらき始はじめた。⁶
"I started working after nine o'clock."

明日あしたから日本語にほんごを習ならい始はじめます。⁶¹²
"I will start learning Japanese tomorrow."

二〇〇〇年にせんねんから人口じんこうが増ふえ始はじめました。²¹
"The population started increasing from the year 2000."

～始める is the highest-frequency aspectual V2 by a wide margin in NINJAL-derived counts, at around 2,373 compound types. This is one reason textbooks introduce it before its siblings.¹⁵

Typical V1 partners

High-frequency partners attested in the lexicon include 食べる, 読む, 書く, 降る, 勉強する, 働く, 話す, 走る, 習う, 増える, and 減る.²⁶¹²²¹ What they share is that V1 names a dynamic action with a recognisable starting point.

始める vs 始まる inside compounds

Only the transitive 始める is productive as V2. The intransitive 始まる does not stack on a V-stem. ×食べ始まる is ungrammatical, even in clauses whose wider meaning is intransitive.²⁵

雨あめが降ふり始はじめる。⁵
"It begins to rain."

The compound above is well formed because 始める selects only V1's stem, not the transitivity of the wider clause. The transitivity of the whole compound follows V1: 雨が降り始める stays intransitive, and パンを食べ始める stays transitive.⁵

Contrast with the standalone verb 始める

Standalone 始める takes a noun object: 勉強を始める means "start studying."⁵⁶ The compound 始める takes a V-stem instead and inherits V1's argument structure. 本を読み始める means "start reading a book" and still takes 本 as the object that V1 selects.⁵⁶

～終わる: marking the endpoint of an action

Core meaning

～終わる reports that the V1 action has reached its natural endpoint.⁵¹¹ It does not mean the same thing as やめる (the agent chooses to stop, possibly before completion) or ～切る / ～尽くす (exhaustive completion, "every last bit").¹¹¹⁴

仕事しごとを片付かたづけ終おわった。¹¹
"I finished tidying up the work."

十二時じゅうにじに絵えを描かき終おわりました。²¹
"I finished drawing the picture at twelve."

まだ本ほんを読よみ終おわっていない。¹¹
"I haven't finished reading the book yet."

ようやく宿題しゅくだいを書かき終おえた。¹⁶⁶
"I finally finished writing the homework."

～終わる is the more frequent of the two finish-V2s in casual prose. ～終える sounds more bookish and is preferred when the writer wants to foreground the agent's effort.¹⁶

Typical V1 partners

～終わる naturally fits bounded actions with built-in endpoints: 食べる, 読む, 書く, 見る, 描く, 片付ける. The compounds 食べ終わる, 読み終わる, 書き終わる, 見終わる, and 片付け終わる all appear in the lexicon and in pedagogical sources.^2111421

終わる vs 終える: two transitivity choices

Both are productive V2s on the masu-stem, and the choice is mainly stylistic.¹⁶ Bjelaković's BCCWJ-based corpus study confirms that 終わる occurs in both intransitive and transitive frames in modern Japanese. 終える is restricted to transitive frames, and both forms attach productively as V2.¹⁶

読み終えた tends to add a faint nuance of "at last / finally / with effort" that 読み終わった lacks. Modern readers nonetheless accept 読み終わった本 and 読み終えた本 in equal contexts.¹⁶

Historically, 終える was the transitive volitional counterpart to intransitive 終わる. The use of 終わった as a transitive V2 is the modern extension behind the present-day variability.¹⁶

Where ～終わる sounds odd

～終わる resists stative V1s that have no internal duration to bring to a close. ×知り終わる and ×着き終わる are unattested in the productive sense.²¹¹ It also feels redundant with V1s that already lexicalise completion. ×済ませ終わる is rejected on the same grounds.¹¹

Natural-phenomenon and physiological V1s without a clear agent-perceived endpoint are awkward too. ×雨が降り終わる is dispreferred. The idiomatic equivalent is 雨がやんだ.¹⁴

～続ける: marking the duration of an action

Core meaning

～続ける asserts that the V1 action goes on over a stretch of time, either as one uninterrupted span or as repetition over time.¹⁰¹⁷¹² Functionally, it is a durative aspectual head above the lexical VP. This is why it embeds activity and process V1s but resists statives.¹⁰

昨日きのうから雨あめが降ふり続つづけている。¹⁷
"It has been raining nonstop since yesterday."

彼女かのじょは彼氏かれしの話はなしをしゃべり続つづけた。¹⁷
"She kept talking about her boyfriend."

どんなに大変たいへんでも、やり続つづけることが大切たいせつだ。¹⁷
"However hard it gets, it matters to keep doing it."

毎日まいにち日本語にほんごを勉強べんきょうし続つづけています。⁶¹²
"I keep studying Japanese every day."

～続ける is the second most frequent aspectual V2 in NINJAL-derived counts (around 1,016 compound types), well ahead of 終わる.¹⁵

Typical V1 partners

Three V1 profiles dominate. Continuous activity V1s such as 走る, 待つ, 書く, 働く, 降る, and 歩く form natural compounds.²¹⁷ Iterative speech-act V1s such as 言う, 訴える, and しゃべる also fit and pick up a "repeated over time" reading.²¹⁷ Light-verb compounds with する fit easily: 勉強し続ける, 努力し続ける.¹⁷¹²

Compatibility limits

Punctual and instantaneous V1s resist ～続ける in its literal aspectual reading. ×死に続ける and ×着き続ける either fail outright or force a metaphorical or repeated-event reading.²¹⁰¹⁸

Pure statives are blocked outright as productive compounds. ×ある続ける and ×いる続ける do not occur. The literary form ありつづける exists, but a learner should treat it as marked.¹⁰¹⁷

The line between accepted and rejected V1s is the same line Kindaichi (1950) draws between continuous, state, and punctual classes. Aspectual V2 selectability is one of the standard diagnostics for that classification.¹⁸

～続ける vs ～ている

～ている marks an ongoing process or a resultant state without asserting a time span.¹⁰¹⁸ ～続ける goes further: it says the speaker views the action as sustained over time.¹⁰¹⁷

走はしっている。¹⁰
"(Someone) is running."

走はしり続つづける。¹⁷
"(Someone) keeps on running."

The two can combine. 走り続けている asserts both that the running is sustained and that it is in progress at the reference time.¹⁰¹⁷

Nuance and usage contexts

A single lifecycle frame

The three suffixes divide one timeline into three stances. 始める marks the left edge (onset), 続ける spans the middle (interior duration), and 終わる / 終える marks the right edge (endpoint).³⁴ This frame is the standard teaching anchor in N4 textbooks and reference handbooks.⁶⁷⁴

始める vs ～出す (sudden onset)

～始める marks neutral onset and works with planned, controlled, or invited actions.¹⁹²⁰ ～出す signals an abrupt and often unintended onset. It resists modal frames of permission or planning. Typical ～出す partners are 笑い出す, 泣き出す, 走り出す, and 降り出す, all events with an external or surprising trigger.¹⁹²⁰

食たべ始はじめてもいいですか。¹⁹
"May I start eating?"

The same modal frame around ～出す is rejected: ×食べ出してもいいですか. If you want one cue, treat ～始める as the planned, controlled onset and ～出す as the abrupt, often surprising one. The full ～出す treatment belongs in the N3 sibling article.¹⁹¹⁴

終わる vs ～切る (complete fully) vs やめる (stop)

～終わる reports that the natural endpoint has been reached and makes no claim about exhaustiveness.¹¹ ～切る (N3) marks exhaustive completion, the sense of "every last bit": 食べ切る is "eat every last bite."¹⁴ やめる reports that the agent chose to stop, often before the natural endpoint. 食べるのをやめる can be said with food still on the plate.⁵¹¹

Verb	What it says about the action
～終わる	The natural endpoint has been reached.
～切る (N3)	The action was carried to exhaustive completion.
やめる	The agent stopped, possibly before completion.

続ける vs ～ている vs ～ていく / ～てくる

～続ける asserts sustained action by the subject.¹⁰¹⁷ ～ていく and ～てくる add a directional or developmental nuance over time and are not interchangeable with ～続ける.⁴

For first use, a compact cue is enough: ～続ける says "keeps doing," ～ていく says "goes on doing into the future," and ～てくる says "has come to do (up to now)."⁴

Register and frequency

All three V2s are register-neutral. The suffix carries no politeness implication beyond what its own inflection adds to the sentence.¹⁵⁵ They appear at N4 in the textbook canon and in news, business writing, and conversation outside the classroom.⁶⁷¹⁴

Good to know

Inflecting V1 instead of V2

A learner sometimes writes ×食べた始める for "started eating," conjugating V1 instead of V2. The compound only inflects on V2; V1 is frozen at the masu-stem. The correct form is:

食たべ始はじめた。¹⁸⁴
"(I) started eating."

Reaching for 始まる as V2

The intransitive 始まる does not stack on a V-stem, even in a clause whose wider meaning is intransitive. ×雨が降り始まる is rejected. The productive V2 is always 始める. The correct form is:

雨あめが降ふり始はじめる。²⁵
"It begins to rain."

Forcing ～続ける onto a stative V1

～続ける selects continuous or repeated activities, so pure statives are blocked in the productive aspectual reading. ×田中さんはここにいる続ける is ungrammatical. In plain speech, use ずっといる. In marked literary registers, a learner may meet the form いつづける instead.¹⁰¹⁷¹⁸

Treating ～終わる as "stop"

A learner who wants to say "I got bored, so I stopped reading" sometimes writes ×飽きたので、本を読み終わった. ～終わる reports a natural endpoint, not a choice to stop early. The right verb for "stop before completion" is やめる:

飽あきたので、本ほんを読よむのをやめた。¹¹
"I got bored, so I stopped reading the book."

読み終わった vs 読み終えた

Both forms are accepted in modern Japanese. 読み終えた sounds bookish and adds a faint "at last / with effort" nuance; 読み終わった is the casual default. A learner who wants to foreground effort or completion of a long task can use 終える. Otherwise, 終わる is the safer pick.¹⁶

One timeline, three stances

A useful mnemonic is to picture one horizontal arrow representing a single action. 始める marks the left edge, 続ける spans the body, and 終わる / 終える marks the right edge. Japanese reference grammars present the three V2s as a set on exactly this frame, so the visual carries from textbook study into richer reading.³⁴

始める vs 終わる as transitive-intransitive remnants

始める is the transitive form of an etymological pair with 始まる, and 終える is the transitive form paired with intransitive 終わる. Modern usage has blurred the 終わる / 終える transitivity contrast in V2 position. Still, the underlying split shows up in standalone clauses such as 試合が始まる ("the match begins," intransitive) versus 試合を始める ("start the match," transitive).¹⁶⁵

See also

• Compound Verbs in Japanese (複合動詞): The V1-Stem + V2 Pattern
• The Japanese Verb Stem (連用形): The Masu-Stem and Its Uses
• Transitivity Pairs in Japanese (自他動詞): Intransitive vs. Transitive
• Japanese Verb Classes by Aspect: Stative, Continuous, Punctual, Fourth-Class (Kindaichi 1950)
• Japanese Verb Groups: 一段, 五段, and Irregular

References

Footnotes

1. Kageyama, Tarō. 『文法と語形成』 [Grammar and Word Formation]. Hituzi Syobo, 1993. The foundational lexical-vs-syntactic split for Japanese V-V compounds. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. 国立国語研究所. 『複合動詞レキシコン』 (Compound Verb Lexicon). https://vvlexicon.ninjal.ac.jp/en/ and https://www2.ninjal.ac.jp/vvlexicon/about.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

3. 西原, 鈴木 et al. niwa saburō. 「26. 複合動詞」, 『日本語文法概説』. https://niwasaburoo.amebaownd.com/posts/5755828/ (limitation: open educational resource, used here only for restating the standard onset/continuation/completion grouping.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. 庵功雄・高梨信乃・中西久実子・山田敏弘. 『初級を教える人のための日本語文法ハンドブック』. スリーエーネットワーク, 2000. Section on アスペクト covers the masu-stem + 始める / 終わる / 続ける set. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

5. 三省堂 (eds.). 『大辞林 第四版』. Sanseido. Entries 「はじめる」「おわる」「つづける」 list each verb's auxiliary (補助動詞) function on the masu-stem. https://dictionary.sanseido-publ.co.jp/dict/ssd13906 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

6. Banno, Eri et al. Genki II: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese, 3rd ed. The Japan Times, 2020. Lesson 14 introduces ～始める; Lesson 23 introduces ～続ける and ～終わる on the masu-stem. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸

7. スリーエーネットワーク. 『みんなの日本語 中級 I』. Lesson 6 introduces 「Vます形+始める/終わる/続ける」. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. Kageyama, Tarō. "Lexical vs. Syntactic VV Complexes." NINJAL International Symposium handout. https://www2.ninjal.ac.jp/past-events/vvsympo/Kageyama_JapaneseV-V.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

9. 影山太郎 (Kageyama, Tarō), section editor. NINJAL Compound Verb Lexicon, "About this site." https://www2.ninjal.ac.jp/vvlexicon/about.html ↩

10. Fukushima, Kazuhiko. "Aspectual verbs as functional heads: evidence from Japanese aspectual verbs." Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 31 (2013): 287–337. Springer. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11049-012-9171-7 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

11. Bunpro. "おわる (JLPT N4)." https://bunpro.jp/ja/grammar_points/126 (limitation: pedagogy site, used for JLPT-level confirmation.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

12. JLPT Sensei. "JLPT N4 Grammar: 続ける (tsuzukeru)." https://jlptsensei.com/learn-japanese-grammar/%E7%B6%9A%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B-tsuzukeru-%E7%B6%9A%E3%81%91%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B-meaning/ (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

13. Bunpro. "はじめる (JLPT N4)." https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E3%81%AF%E3%81%98%E3%82%82%E3%82%8B (limitation) ↩

14. 日本語教師ネット. 「JLPTに出る複合動詞まとめ」. https://nihongokyoshi-net.com/2020/04/03/compaund-verbs/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

15. Nohejl, Adam. "Japanese compound verbs quantitatively." http://nohejl.name/2016/07/05/japanese-compound-verbs-frequency-examples/ (NINJAL-derived V2 frequency counts.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

16. Bjelaković, Andrej. "Corpus analysis of the collocations of the transitive verbs owaru and oeru." Acta Linguistica Asiatica 10.2 (2020). https://journals.uni-lj.si/ala/article/view/9666 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

17. Practice Japanese. "～続ける (tsuzukeru)." https://practice-japanese.com/grammar/tsuzukeru/ (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

18. 金田一春彦. 「国語動詞の一分類」. 言語研究 15 (1950): 48–63. Establishes the four-way aspect-class split (state / continuous / punctual / type-4) presupposed by 続ける's selection restrictions. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

19. 陳曦. 「開始を表す複合動詞「∼出す」「∼始める」の違い」. 神戸松蔭女子学院大学紀要 repository. https://shoin.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=2003 (peer-reviewed bulletin article on the 始める / 出す contrast.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

20. Imabi. "Start to I: ～始める & ～出す." https://imabi.org/start-to-%EF%BD%9E%E5%A7%8B%E3%82%81%E3%82%8B-%EF%BD%9E%E5%87%BA%E3%81%99-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%8B%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B/ (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³

21. 日本語あれこれ. 「中級へ行こうの教え方（〜始める／〜終わる）」. https://nihongo-arekore.com/n3-10/ (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴