"At the beginning" or "during the beginning"?
Are both expressions below valid and equivalent?
- "At the beginning …"
- "During the beginning …"
"During the beginning …" seems wrong to me.
Valid, yes, equivalent, no.
at
used to show an exact position or particular place:
during
from the beginning to the end of a particular period:
Which can be a period known as the "beginning."
Hence, one could say that at the beginning of a class, half the students had arrived, but during the beginning, as the teacher took attendance, all but two arrived.