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Starting, stopping, and refusing with 'zu'

When you want to talk about the phases of an activity, such as starting or stopping, or your attitude towards it, such as hesitating or refusing, German and English part ways. In English, we often use an "-ing" word: "She starts reading," or "He stops talking."

German does not have an equivalent "-ing" form. Instead, verbs like anfangen, aufhören, and sich weigern use the preposition zu followed by an infinitive verb.

Word list
anfangenA1 to begin anfangen, etwas zu tun beginnenA1 to begin beginnen, etwas zu tun anfangenA2 to begin anfangen, etwas zu tun beginnenA2 to begin beginnen, etwas zu tun ablehnenB1 to refuse es ablehnen, etwas zu tun aufhörenB1 to stop aufhören, etwas zu tun sich weigernB1 to refuse sich weigern, etwas zu tun zögernB2 to hesitate zögern, etwas zu tun
The basic rule

The structure is straightforward. You conjugate your main verb normally. Then, the activity you are starting, stopping, or refusing to do goes to the very end of the sentence in its infinitive form, preceded by zu.

Wir beginnen, das Buch zu lesen.
(We are beginning to read the book.)
Wann fängst du an, für die Prüfung zu lernen?
(When are you starting to study for the exam?)
Das Kind weigert sich, das Gemüse zu essen.
(The child refuses to eat the vegetables.)

While a comma before the zu clause is often optional in modern German, it is highly recommended because it makes the sentence much easier to read.

Separable verbs and zu

Things get interesting when the activity you are performing is a separable verb. In this case, zu does not stand alone in front of the word. Instead, it gets swallowed up, sitting right between the prefix and the main part of the verb, forming one single word.

Er fängt an, sein Zimmer aufzuräumen.
(He is starting to clean up his room.)
Sie zögert, ins Kino mitzukommen.
(She is hesitating to come along to the movie theater.)
Stopping an activity

English speakers frequently trip over the verb aufhören. Because we say "stop doing" in English, it is tempting to look for a similar structure in German. Just remember that aufhören works exactly like the starting verbs. It must be paired with zu and an infinitive.

Bitte hör auf, so laut zu singen.
(Please stop singing so loudly.)
Es hat endlich aufgehört, zu regnen.
(It has finally stopped raining.)
Summary

Whenever you use a verb that describes starting, stopping, hesitating, or refusing, look for zu. Conjugate the phase or refusal verb, and put the action being performed at the end of the sentence as zu plus an infinitive. If that infinitive is a separable verb, sandwich the zu between the prefix and the root.