stop

1

My doctor told me to stop to smoke.
My doctor told me to stop smoking.

Use stop + -ing when someone finishes or no longer continues an activity: ‘He stopped smoking.’ ‘Please stop making that noise.’

2

We were tired, so we stopped having a coffee.
We were tired, so we stopped to have a coffee.

Use stop + to-infinitive when someone stops one activity in order to do something else: ‘We stopped to have a coffee.’ This means that we stopped travelling or walking and then had a coffee.

Check our grammar lesson on the difference between stop + to-infinitive and stop + -ing.