Stop to Think About Whether You Need to Stop Thinking

How to use ‘stop’ with another verb is difficult to remember for some students but there is an easy way to remember how to use it correctly.

Stop + infinitive

Using ‘stop’ with the infinitive (i.e. ‘stop to…’) means pausing because there is another different action that the person or thing does.

I had to stop to think about which way to go.

Will you stop to pick up some milk on the way home?

Stop + gerund

Using stop with a gerund (‘stop ..ing something) is generally used to talk about quitting something.

The doctor told him to stop smoking.

I need to stop working so hard.

Complications

Sometimes, using ‘..ing’ verbs that are not gerunds but continuous verbs make things difficult. If the ‘~ing’ does not come at the end of the clause or is not followed by a noun phrase then you may have a case like the one below, which is stop + infinitive.

I had to stop cooking to answer the telephone.

In infinitive forms, ‘and’ often replaces ‘to’.

I had to stop and think about which way to go.

I hope you don’t need to stop to think too much about how to use this verb in the future.