comenzar

to begin, to commence

“Yo me senté sobre un banco en el jardín, y comencé a leer un libro interesante.” — I sat on a bench in the garden, and I started to read an interesting book.

Inherited from Old Spanish començar, from Vulgar Latin *cominitiāre, from com- + Latin initiāre. Did not show diphthongized conjugations in early medieval texts; their later appearance seems to reflect analogy with the synonym empezar.