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Itman Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Stop doing vs stop to do

Hi there,
Would you please tell me the difference between "I stopped to eat an icecream " and " I stopped eating icecream".
Thanks in advance.
  

Top answer

I stopped to eat ice cream. = I ceased doing whatever I was doing, and then I ate ice cream. = I stopped - for the purpose of eating ice cream.

— CalifJim

  • I stopped to eat ice cream.
  • = I ceased doing whatever I was doing, and then I ate ice cream.
  • = I stopped - for the purpose of eating ice cream.
  • I stopped eating ice cream.
  • = I ceased to eat ice cream (on that occasion or forever).
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5 Answers
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I stopped to eat ice cream. = I ceased doing whatever I was doing, and then I ate ice cream. = I stopped - for the purpose of eating ice cream.
I stopped eating ice cream. = I ceased to eat ice cream (on that occasion or forever). = I discontinued the action or habit of eating ice cream.

If I say I stopped to smoke, I had a cigarette.
If I say I stopped smoking, I never
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Mind you,
I stopped, to eat ice cream.
(with comma)
means:
I stopped (from my walking, driving), in order to (buy and) eat some icecream.
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No comma necessary. The meaning is the same without the comma.
In fact, this is preferable without the comma.

CJ
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Thanks a lot.your answer was completely obvious.
By the way,as far as i know there are some other verbs with such a this role.I mean they could be followed with both gerend and to+infinitive.How should we recognise them?All of them can be differentiated based on the maening ?
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http://www.geocities.com/endipatterson/Catenative.html

Toward the bottom of this chart, in the middle of the page horizontally, there is a list.
As you will see there, some verbs that take either gerund or infinitive change little in meaning between gerund and infi
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