Stop doing vs Stop to do - English In A Minute

Hi, I'm Sian from BBC Learning English.

What's the difference between stop to do

and stop doing something?

Well, stop what you're doing right now

because that's what I'm going to tell you.

When we use stop plus ING,

the activity in the ING form stops.

So, I have stopped drinking coffee.

I'm not drinking coffee anymore, I'm only drinking water.

But when stop is followed by the infinitive,

it means we stop doing another action

to do the action in the infinitive.

So, I stopped to buy a tea this morning –

I stopped walking in order to buy a tea.

Right, I'm going to stop talking now.

Write me a comment,

and tell me something that you've stopped doing.