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- "Mi sono fermato per fumare."
41 Comments
Shouldn't 'smoking' be accepted here too?.. I mean in english this is what you'd use most of the time "I have quit smoking". Anyone agree/disagree?
The meaning is different: the speaker isn't saying he quit smoking, but stopped (running/writing/working/whatever they were doing) to have a smoke.
"Ho smesso di fumare". When smettere is used intransitively (or with an indeterminate "la") it means to quit, finish, cease and desist; it's very used when quitting a repetitive action. For instance "Smettila!" (Quit it!) or "Ha smesso di piovere" (It stopped raining).
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Ah! If only more Italians would do that! It breaks our hearts to see so many, especially young ones, smoking here in Volterra!
I dont think you mean this Nonna. The sentence means he stopped what he was doing to have a smoke. Not that he gave up smoking. That would use smettere
Excuse me Nonna. My replies also often end up misplaced. In fact the post of yours I wanted to reply to had no reply button. As a result I misinterpreted your post. So sorry for your loss. As always Formica straightens us out!
Argh, the preposition per was such a strong hint towards that meaning and I missed it! Thank you formica once again!
But your answer raises other questions: can we say "mi sono fermato (di) fumare" or "ha fermato (di) fumare" and, if yes, does it mean "I stopped smoking" with the context being "when my mother suddenly entered the room"?
P.S. I know that for the stronger " to quit smoking" formica proposed "smettere di fumare".
- 750
Me too,as I remember in my grammar book,verbs like :start , finish and others of similar meaning take ..ing form
I thought that and then suddenly thought it could be someone had stopped doing something to smoke. So like 'Why did you stop?' 'I have stopped - to smoke.
I'm wondering why this is "mi sono fermato" and not "mi ho fermato". When do you use essere and when avere?
I'll try. Reflexive verbs require 'essere'. This verb is being used reflexively here since the person speaking is not stopping something else, such as a car, but is in a sense stopping himself or herself, though the "self" isn't expressed but is implicit. So use 'avere' if 'fermare' is used with a direct object: Ho fermato la macchina. But Mi sono fermato/fermata alla incrocia. Literally: I stopped (myself) at the intersection, though you wouldn't include 'myself' in English.
I even feel 'Mi sono fermata ...' is the only correct answer since it is a female voice. No idea why it is not even accepted ....
See above posts, the reflexive verb means he stopped himself in order to have a smoke, not that he quit smoking. As formica says, it would be ho smesso di fumare
- 164
"I stopped to smoke" means something completely different from "I stopped smoking" which is the correct translation here. "I stopped to smoke" means that I was walking or travelling and paused to have a cigarette etc
supermollusc: That's not correct. DL's sentence -- Mi sono fermato per fumare" means the former, not the latter: "I stopped to smoke/have a smoke"". If it meant I stopped smoking" it'd be "Ho smesso di fumare."
Read through the posts. Others had the same question. It was not I stopped smoking but I stopped what I was doing to have a smoke
In English, you would say 'I stopped to have a smoke', or 'i stopped for a smoke'. We might say 'i stopped to eat' but not 'i stopped to smoke'
