STOP vs. STOPPING

Good morning.

Today's Daily Vitamin is once again based on a question from a reader.

Matthew. I don't know if you have done a Vitamin about the difference between:

-STOP TO DO SOMETHING
-STOP DOING SOMETHING

But it might be a good idea. (Judit)

My first suggestion, Judit, is that you go back and review two Daily Vitamins that we did in 2006:

08/03/2006 --> TO INFINITIVE (search word: infinitive)
09/03/2006 --> FOR GERUND (search word: gerund)

These two lessons will give you general information about some differences between the use of the gerund and the infinitive in English.

With respect to your question, we would translate your first example (stop to do something) to Spanish as "parar para hacer algo" and the second example would be translated as "parar de hacer algo".

Example 1:
I had been working all morning, so I stopped to eat lunch.

Example 2:
I stopped working, and then I had lunch.

We could combine the sentences to create example 3.

Example 3:
I stopped working to eat lunch.

What is the difference between the following sentences?

a) You stopped to write.

b) You stopped writing.

In the first example, you ended one activity (working? talking?) in order to begin to write. In the second example, you ended the activity of writing.

If this is not clear Judit, please leave a comment in the Daily Vitamin section on our website, and I will add more detail.

Enjoy the rest of your day.