Sunday, July 1, 2018

phrases - What is the meaning of "stop to do"?


My teacher said that "stop to do" had two meanings: quit doing present work to do next work (which is following after the word "do") and pause for a while then continue. I have searched a lot about its meanings but what i got just about the first meaning. Is the second one true?


For examples:



  • I stop to play games.


First meaning: i stop doing something in order to play games.


Second meaning: i pause playing games for a while then i continue.




Answer



To put it shortly, the first meaning is correct, but the second one is wrong.


When verb stop is followed by another verb in to-infinitive, it solely means you quit doing something else that you are currently doing in order to perform that new action that you mentioned.


The full expression would be:



to stop doing A in order to do B



To express that second meaning, you would have to use other verb, for example:



I stop doing A and will resume (doing A) later.




Reference links for credible sources and examples:


Oxford Dictionary


Merriam-Webster


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