How to Say “Stop” in Spanish

Ways to say it

To say stop in the sense of not continuing an action, you use dejar de or parar de. If you mean the action of coming to a stop, use the formal term detenerse. For an informal way to say stop or enough, you can use basta. To tell someone to stop their current behavior, you can also use the informal cálmate, which means calm down.

Which one should you use?

The choice between these two depends on the nature of the stop. Dejar de often implies a permanent cessation or quitting a habit. In contrast, parar de often implies a temporary interruption of an ongoing action. If you want to say stop in the sense of a machine or a car stopping its motion, use the intransitive verb parar without the de.

Related words

Place to get on and off mass transport (noun): parada, paradero.

Punctuation symbol (noun): punto, punto final.

How does it change in a sentence?

When you want to say stop doing something, both dejar de and parar de must be followed by an infinitive.

How do you pronounce it?

/dexaɾ de/

What mistakes should you avoid?

Avoid using detener to mean stopping a habit or a continuous action. detener is used for physically arresting someone or halting a vehicle's motion.