arrêtez

Arrêtez is a French verb form meaning "stop." It functions as the second-person plural present indicative of arrêter and as the imperative form used to issue a command to several people or to a single person formally (vous). The corresponding informal singular imperative is arrête. In written French, arrêtez is also the form that appears for the second-person plural in the present tense (vous arrêtez), which can be the same spelling as the imperative in context.

Grammatical notes and usage: Arrêtez is used to tell a group or a polite single person to stop an action, as in Arrêtez ce bruit or Arrêtez immédiatement. The imperative mood often appears with s’il vous plaît (please stop). The tu-form imperative of arrêter is arrête, which is not interchangeable with arrêtez. The verb also appears in various tenses and moods with the same stem but different endings, such as vous arrêtez in the present indicative and arrêtez in the imperative.

Etymology and related forms: Arrêter comes from Old French arrester, from Latin arrestare meaning to stop or hinder. Related forms include the noun arrêt (a stop or halt) and the past participle arrêté, used in compound tenses (j’ai arrêté, vous avez arrêté). The verb belongs to the first-conjugation group in its basic form, with paradigm parallels across other -er verbs.

Usage notes: In signs, instructions, and spoken language, arrêtez conveys a direct, formal command or a polite request when addressing more than one person or a single person formally. It is distinct from arrête, the informal singular imperative, and from other conjugated forms that express ongoing or completed stopping actions.