STOP TO DO or STOP DOING | Two Minute Grammar

36

Hello and welcome to LetThemTalk the channel that goes deeper into everything about the

English language

And today we are proud to announce a new series of lessons called "2 minute grammar" and it's

called "2 minute grammar" because it's a grammar lesson and it lasts for 2 minutes. Yes, that's

right for those of you who are far too busy to watch our 8, 9, 10 minute videos can just

watch our 2 minute videos thereby saving yourself about 6 minutes of your valuable time which

I'm sure you'll spend wisely. Anyway with these shorter videos we are going to get straight

to the point we won't ramble on about irrelevant information that you don't need to know like

what I had for breakfast, my opinion on North Korea, the best way peel a banana and my holidays

in Majorca, I didn't go to Majorca, by the way, that was just an example actually I

went to the Costa del Sol. What was I saying. Oh yes with these shorter videos we won't waste

your time we'll get straight to the point. And at the end of them I promise you, I promise

you, you'll say to yourself "wow I never knew that". If you don't we'll give your money

back but of course you didn't pay any money so....anyway without further ado here is the

very first 2 minute grammar. An it's the difference between stop to do and stop doing

. So let me ask you a question is this sentence. correct "A few years ago I stopped to smoke

because it was bad for my health". "A few years ago I stopped to smoke because it was

bad for my health".

No, it isn't the correct sentence is "A few years ago I stopped smoking

because it was bad for my health". In English we use stop + verb + ing "to mean

to cease, to quit, to end something. Let's look at some more examples.

"Last year I beame a vegetarian and I stopped eating meat. "

"When Boris entered the room everyone stopped talking. "

And when we use stop + verb + ing we are talking about one action. "I stopped smoking" is one

action. "I stopped eating" again that's also one action.

So what about stop + infinitive? This simply means "in order to..." and also when you use

stop + infinitive it's 2 actions. let's look at some examples.

"I was working for an hour and then I stopped to smoke a cigarette". (so you could also

say "I stopped in order to smoke a cigarette. " same meaning and it's 2 actions. Action

1 is to stop. action 2 is to smoke a cigarette. Another example

"On the way home we stopped to get some ice cream". - again it's two actions here we stop

and then we get some ice cream. "I saw Nicola in the park and I stopped to

talk to her " So that's it! Pretty simple huh? And that

was about two minutes. If you like that format you can let me know in the comments and if

you didn't then well, too bad, Thank you for watching, stay mellow and I'll see you next time.