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Does "a neighboring building" sound natural and should I use "was on fire" instead of "started to burn"?

"I woke up and saw that a neighboring building started to burn."

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"A neighboring building" does not sound strange to me. Your sentence needs a "had" in it to keep the tense consistent, however. You could say either:

I woke up and saw that a neighboring building was on fire.

Or

I woke up and saw that a neighboring building had started to burn.

Alternatively, you could say "a nearby building" or, if it is the building next to the one you are in, you could say "the building next door".

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  • If I say "One morning, when I woke up I saw that a neighboring building was on fire." Should there be a comma after"morning"?
    – Antonia A
    Nov 13, 2020 at 18:17
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    The sentence works best with a comma after morning and another after up.
    – Ronald Sole
    Nov 13, 2020 at 19:21
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A neighboring building is fine, and was on fire would be the normal way to say that you woke up and saw it already burning, although had started to burn is possible.

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The phrase "a neighboring building" is good. Note that "was on fire" describes a state, while "started to burn" describes a change.
You might say "had started to burn" or "was starting to burn". It depends on the meaning you want.

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