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".

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.

Gerunds & infinitivesB1Know whether to say "to go" or "going"

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.

CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.

Practise the stop doing or stop to do? →

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