The phrase “” is an informal way to announce the beginning of an activity. You can also say that something “” if it began well. Other collocations for a good start include an or – these expressions show that there is hope for good results in the future. For example, “The soccer team got off to a promising start, winning the first four games of the season.”
If it is not so certain that there will be good results in the future, then you can say a or – “The business had a in the second quarter of 2013, with sales numbers fluctuating daily.”
If the beginning of something did not meet expectations, you can call it a – and if it was REALLY terrible, you can describe it as a . “Kevin failed every single one of his first exams – his semester was off to a .”
Sometimes things go so badly that you need to get out of the situation and have a completely or . When a successful person or company started without being famous or rich, then we say they had a .
Now let’s talk about “finish” and “end” – there is a difference between these two verbs. “Finish” usually implies completing something, whereas “end” is used for a more passive situation/state: I my homework. The semester in December. We need to the project. We our partnership with that company.
When you make the final changes to something before it is completed, we say you . Two expressions used to talk about ending something are or . You can also say “” to describe something that will probably end soon – “The explosion at the factory was the beginning of the end for our company.” In other words, the explosion began a process of the company failing and eventually shutting down. When something ends quickly, then it comes to an . On the other hand, when an activity appears that it will continue forever, then we say there’s .