stoppen

Stoppen is a Dutch verb meaning to stop, cease, or halt. It describes halting an action, stopping movement, or ceasing to do something, and it is widely used in everyday speech as well as in formal writing.

Stoppen is a regular weak verb. In the present tense the forms are: ik stop, jij stopt, hij stopt, wij stoppen, jullie stoppen, zij stoppen. The past tense is formed with -te/-ten: ik stopte, jij stopte, hij stopte, wij stopten, jullie stopten, zij stopten. The past participle is gestopt, and the perfect tense is built with hebben: ik heb gestopt. The imperative is Stop! for singular informal use.

Common constructions include stoppen met + [gerund], meaning to quit or stop doing something, for example, stoppen met roken. Stoppen can also take a direct object to indicate stopping a process or a supply, such as de stroom stoppen (to cut off the power) or een proces stoppen (to halt a process). In passive or past contexts, one often says de stroom is gestopt or het proces is gestopt. The verb can appear in various tenses and moods, with "er wordt gestopt" or "het wordt gestopt" used to indicate that something is being brought to a halt.

Etymology and related forms: stoppen is of Germanic origin and has cognates in other Germanic languages; in particular, German stoppen is a closely related form. The Dutch verb shares a common lineage with the English word stop through Proto-Germanic roots, reflecting a common semantic field of cessation and interruption.