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You can start your car.

You can start your computer.

The dictionary says the French word demarrer for starting the car and allumer for the computer.

Why is this discrepancy between the two devices?

In English, one size fits all!

I mean we use start for almost all instances.

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That is the beauty of language  -freedom of expression!

"start the fire" ,"light the fire" ,"get the fire going/on", "get a fire going/on" or "put a match to the fire"

I can't think of other ways to say "start the car" off the top of my head but there are sure to be other ways of saying that too.

Thanks George

When you have  a smattering of French, these things are  tall orders.

English is simple and straightforward !

Not so fast. As just 1 example, 'kill the light' in English has endless variations as you can see here http://www.waywordradio.org/discussion/topics/shut-the-lights-a-reg...

'Start' would not be right for many things: radio, light, fridge, cooking range, air conditioner ...

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