Using the verb "to stop"

Stop + gerund means that an action in progress ends. There is no causal relationship between the two verbs.

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Examples
  • I stopped working for them last year.
  • I have stopped cycling to work.
  • Could you stop bringing your dog to the office?
  • He stopped eating meat in January.

Stop + infinitive means to interrupt an activity in order to do something else, so the infinitive is used to express the purpose of stopping.

Examples
  • I stopped to have lunch at 12:00.
  • It's difficult to concentrate on what you are doing if you have to stop to answer the phone every five minutes.
  • We stopped to look at the wildflowers.
  • I stopped to take a break, but I'll start again soon.
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