Your first sentence is fine. Your second sentence is not.
Begin and start are both verbs, so they can be interchanged.
The equivalent noun of begin is beginning.
The equivalent noun of start is start
(Beginning and start are synonyms and can be interchanged.)
So your second sentence should be:
Why don't you begin from the start?
That is, beginning and start are both "regular" or autonomous nouns. They function the same. They have their own dictionary entry as nouns. The fact that beginning ends in -ing just indicates a different formation. Compare: building. No one doubts that building is a noun!
(Nouns such as beginning and building were evidently made from the verb + -ing centuries ago, but they long since began to be autonomous nouns with all the features of other nouns, such as start (for example, they have plural forms (beginnings, buildings, starts) and they are modified by adjectives. They have their own dictionary entry as nouns.
However, starting is a gerund. It is the -ing form of a verb acting as a noun. As such it has properties of a verb, not a noun. For example it can take a direct object, it is modified by an adverb. It is not a permanent or autonomous noun. Look up starting up in a dictionary: it will redirect you to the verb start. (At least the six dictionaries I tried did this.) This indicates that starting is not considered an autonomous noun (rather, start is).
We don't say Begin at the starting. We say Begin at the starting point Thus we use starting as an adjective. It is also a gerund, as in "Starting the race from the beginning is a good idea." Notice that starting can have a direct object, when it is a gerund.
Now, to slightly complicate matters, since both begin and build are verbs, they can also be used as gerunds: beginning and building. But these words as gerunds can be thought of as different words from the autonomous nouns beginning and building (discussed above) As gerunds, they act the same as the gerund starting:
Beginning (gerund) at the beginning (noun), she read all the letters.
Building (gerund) a large building (noun) takes time.
But we just don't say:
- Starting (gerund) at the starting, she read all the letters.
So starting works as a gerund, but it is not an actual noun, (or a regular noun, or an autonomous noun, or a noun proper--take your pick of terminology).
One can say
In/at the beginning (noun), God created...
but we don't say:
- In/at the starting, God created...
We could say
In/at the start (noun), God created...
Your (1) and (2) would function the same most of the time. But if I try, I think I can imagine a context where they would mean slightly different things.
(1) I'm telling someone an anecdote, about something that happened to me. I'm far from home when I tell this story. Let's say the story starts out in a town not far from my own -- let's call it Jackson. At a certain point in my story, the listener needs to know that the town where I live isn't far from Jackson. Maybe there's going to be a dramatic car ride to go pick up some item that is urgently needed in time for a concert that's going to start shortly. Let's say the item was in a suitcase that the airlines have misplaced. To explain that my town isn't far from Jackson, I say, "I live in a nearby town. So I jumped in my car and drove home as fast as I could. I grabbed my copy of the score of Beethoven's Fifth and raced back to the concert hall in Jackson, arriving just as the orchestra was tuning."
(2) Note that this sentence wouldn't work in the story about the dramatic car ride.
Moving on. In (A), "nearby" is describing "restaurant;" since "restaurant" is a noun, "nearby" functions as an adjective in this sentence. In (B), "nearby" tells us where you live. Therefore it functions as an adverb in this sentence.
(C): adverb; (D): adjective; same analysis as for (A) and (B).
To get better at distinguishing between adjectives and adverbs, I recommend that you start by practicing with simple sentences. Use a different symbol to indicate each one -- for example, circle the adjectives, and underline the adverbs. You could even use different colors. BUT before you do that, you should get completely solid on identifying NOUNS and VERBS. When you can do that comfortably and easily, the adjectives and adverbs will jump off the page at you, for the most part.
Do you have a teacher who can check your exercises?
Best Answer
Some people might argue that from is ambiguous, and might or might not include today. However, I think this is not one of the ambiguous reference to time, myself (such as "by tomorrow"). I would read those as having identical meanings, and both are correct, standard, natural, and idiomatic.