Verb patterns · CEFR B2 · Confident
stop doing or stop to do? — English verb patterns
For a handful of verbs both forms are correct and mean different things. -ing looks back at what happened; "to" looks forward at the purpose.
The shape
stop / remember / forget / try + -ing or + to
Say exactly what you mean with the trickiest verbs.
In Hindi
कुछ क्रियाओं के साथ दोनों रूप सही हैं, पर अर्थ अलग। -ing पीछे देखता है, "to" आगे।
CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.
The mistake to fix first
The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.
| Commonly said | Correct English |
|---|---|
I stopped to smoke last year — I am much healthier now. | I stopped smoking last year — I am much healthier now. "Stopped to smoke" means you paused in order to smoke; quitting is "stopped smoking". |
Learn these first
These come first. The rest of this makes more sense once they are automatic.
Questions people ask
- What is the stop doing or stop to do? used for?
- For a handful of verbs both forms are correct and mean different things. -ing looks back at what happened; "to" looks forward at the purpose. In practice: say exactly what you mean with the trickiest verbs.
- How do you form the stop doing or stop to do??
- stop / remember / forget / try + -ing or + to.
- What is the most common mistake with the stop doing or stop to do??
- Saying “I stopped to smoke last year — I am much healthier now.” instead of “I stopped smoking last year — I am much healthier now.”. "Stopped to smoke" means you paused in order to smoke; quitting is "stopped smoking".
Where stop doing or stop to do? fits
Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.
stop doing or stop to do? is a CEFR B2 structure — the confident band — and it belongs to verb patterns. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.
Reading it is not the same as saying it.
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