What Is The Past Tense Of Stop?
Stop in past tense is “stopped”: S-T–O-P-P-E-D.
When you need to use it in the past form, you must add “ed” at the end of the bare form, but do not forget to double “p”. It means: stop + “ped” to create the past tense.
How about the past participle form of stop? It shares the same form with the past tense: “stopped”.
The below table includes all the verb forms. Don’t forget to write them down in your notebook for checking and learning.
| Form | Verb |
| Bare | stop |
| Present participle | stopping |
| 3rd person singular | stops |
| Past | stopped |
| Past participle | stopped |
This video is a great method to learn its pronunciation and usage by listening and practicing it yourself:
How Do You Spell Stop Past Tense?
First, the pronunciation is slightly different between American and British English.
- American people: this word has a vowel sound of /ɑː/. It sounds similar to /æ/, but the two little dots indicate that it is a longer sound. To make the sound, place your tongue towards the back of your mouth and make a long-voiced sound with your mouth open.
- British people: this word has a vowel sound of /ɒ/. To create the sound, place your tongue at the back of your mouth and softly press your lips together while creating a short-voiced sound.
This table below will list down the official IPA of each word:
| Form Of Word | Pronunciation | |
| US | UK | |
| Stop | /stɑːp/ | /stɒp/ |
| Stopped | /stɑːpt/ | /stɒpt/ |
| Stopped | /stɑːpt/ | /stɒpt/ |
Stop Definition And How To Use
When you want to use “stop” meanings to tell a story or express an idea in the past, you must use “stopped” (the past form) instead of the bare verb form (stop).
In general, this word has some meanings:
- Not move anymore; to cause someone or something not to move
- To bring anything to a close
- To prevent someone from doing something; to prevent a thing from occurring.
- To interrupt a task for a brief period of time to accomplish something else.
- To cause anything not to operate or function.
Let’s refer to some examples to know how to use these forms of verbs properly:
- She stopped crying when her mother came home.
- I couldn’t stop smiling when I saw her.
- The AC stopped working last night because of engine issues.
- Did she stop crying yet after her boyfriend came?
- He tried to stop his wife from shouting.
- My team didn’t stop thinking about the consequences of the mistake.
Here is another word for stop:
- come to an end
- come to a stop
- cease
- be over
- conclude
- pause
- finish
- break off
- end
- draw to a close
- terminate
- come to a standstill
Exercises
His name is Benjamin Essek – The founder of Grammar Wiki. He is an English native speaker and has joined many English classes, learning communities to support other people with this common language as well.