Accoring to wiktionary.org,
alkaa means "to begin (to do sth), start (doing sth); to initiate, set in, be initiated, originate, be originated, take its origin." and
aloittaa means "to start, begin, commence; to go ahead"
When would you use one over the other?
alkaa vs. aloittaa
Re: alkaa vs. aloittaa
"The road begins here" gives you the correct sense of alkaa, which is intransitive. Or "the future begins today." Or even "She began to cry."
Tie alkaa tästä.
Tulevaisuus alkaa tänään.
Hän alkoi itkeä.
Aloittaa is derived from alkaa in a common pattern of making new verbs for other verbs or from nouns. It means to start (transitive), to initiate, to embark upon a course or activity, to cause something to begin (make it alkaa). Generally the subject is a sentient being, though it would be possible for an earthquake or a volcano to initiate some other process. There is some degree of that distinction between start and begin in English, though start can also be used in the intransitive begin-like sense. And begin can even be used transitively. Finnish verbs are more systematic about stuff like that. You can often see the sense from the verb without even knowing what it means.
But the bigger picture is that descriptions like this and the study of definitions will not get you very far. You will learn about Finnish, possibly, but without learning much Finnish itself. And thinking of a word in English and looking for the corresponding Finnish word, most especially with verbs, will pretty much run you up against a wall of incomprehension or miscomprehension. Anything you write that is not based on other examples you've seen written will probably be garbage and only teach you bad habits you'll have to unlearn later.
Instead it's essential to study phrases instead of words, and sentences are often better to study than phrases. Learning phrases and sentences helps prevent you from constructing and practicing many of the more-or-less nonsensical constructs that foreigners are prone to invent when they freely combine Finnish words and grammatical forms in ways that make sense based on their native language.
What study books do you have? The most important thing at first is that you need to follow some systematic course to get anywhere, and it needs to be more example-based than description-based. (Though any didactic book is probably better than none.) In that sense it's like learning to sing well or to play a musical instrument. This thing with verbs is especially tricky because there is so much nuance built into the various verb-type endings (before you add conjugational endings for number, mood, tense, etc.). In English you need prepositions or auxiliary verbs to convey much of what is already baked into the verb in Finnish. We have many of the same distinctions in our verb senses but they are not so systematically signalled within the verb the way they are in Finnish.
I wish I knew example-rich materials to recommend but I'm not familiar with the newer stuff. Hopefully someone else will be. The best I could do when I was learning was to find books to read and to discuss with a knowledgeable helper. All the real progress came from that and from television and movies with subtitles. The grammar study, while necessary to some extent, was only incidental and enabling. Avoid the trap of making it an end in itself because it so easily becomes a dead end in itself.
Tie alkaa tästä.
Tulevaisuus alkaa tänään.
Hän alkoi itkeä.
Aloittaa is derived from alkaa in a common pattern of making new verbs for other verbs or from nouns. It means to start (transitive), to initiate, to embark upon a course or activity, to cause something to begin (make it alkaa). Generally the subject is a sentient being, though it would be possible for an earthquake or a volcano to initiate some other process. There is some degree of that distinction between start and begin in English, though start can also be used in the intransitive begin-like sense. And begin can even be used transitively. Finnish verbs are more systematic about stuff like that. You can often see the sense from the verb without even knowing what it means.
But the bigger picture is that descriptions like this and the study of definitions will not get you very far. You will learn about Finnish, possibly, but without learning much Finnish itself. And thinking of a word in English and looking for the corresponding Finnish word, most especially with verbs, will pretty much run you up against a wall of incomprehension or miscomprehension. Anything you write that is not based on other examples you've seen written will probably be garbage and only teach you bad habits you'll have to unlearn later.
Instead it's essential to study phrases instead of words, and sentences are often better to study than phrases. Learning phrases and sentences helps prevent you from constructing and practicing many of the more-or-less nonsensical constructs that foreigners are prone to invent when they freely combine Finnish words and grammatical forms in ways that make sense based on their native language.
What study books do you have? The most important thing at first is that you need to follow some systematic course to get anywhere, and it needs to be more example-based than description-based. (Though any didactic book is probably better than none.) In that sense it's like learning to sing well or to play a musical instrument. This thing with verbs is especially tricky because there is so much nuance built into the various verb-type endings (before you add conjugational endings for number, mood, tense, etc.). In English you need prepositions or auxiliary verbs to convey much of what is already baked into the verb in Finnish. We have many of the same distinctions in our verb senses but they are not so systematically signalled within the verb the way they are in Finnish.
I wish I knew example-rich materials to recommend but I'm not familiar with the newer stuff. Hopefully someone else will be. The best I could do when I was learning was to find books to read and to discuss with a knowledgeable helper. All the real progress came from that and from television and movies with subtitles. The grammar study, while necessary to some extent, was only incidental and enabling. Avoid the trap of making it an end in itself because it so easily becomes a dead end in itself.
As he persisted, I was obliged to tootle him gently at first and then, seeing no improvement, to trumpet him vigorously with my horn.
Re: alkaa vs. aloittaa
Thanks for the answer and the study advice. I'll be posting more questions as I go, especially if I come across an unfamiliar word and look up the definition but otherwise lack context. When I have native speakers around, I'll be able to ask directly. Until then, I have this forum! Thanks, again!