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'Stop', 'quit' and 'give up': Portuguese uses 'de' plus an infinitive

In English, verbs like stop, quit, finish and give up are followed by an -ing form: stop smoking, quit drinking, give up trying. Portuguese does not have that pattern. Instead, verbs such as parar, deixar, terminar and desistir take the little word de followed by a plain infinitive: parar de fumar, deixar de beber.

English speakers often trip here in two ways. Some leave out de completely, and others try to find a Portuguese equivalent of the -ing form. Both produce sentences that sound wrong to native speakers. Once you think of de as part of the verb, the pattern becomes easy.

Word list
acabarA2 to end acabar de comer = finish eating terminarA2 to end terminar de ler = finish reading deixarB1 to stop deixar de comer carne = quit eating meat desistirB1 to give up desistir de + infinitive = give up (admit defeat) pararB1 to stop parar de fumar = stop smoking desistirB2 to give up desistir de tentar = give up trying
How it works

The structure is always the same: conjugated verb + de + infinitive. The first verb changes for person and tense, while the infinitive after de never changes.

Parei de fumar e deixei de beber café.
(I stopped smoking and quit drinking coffee.)

A useful rule of thumb: if English says stop, quit, finish or give up + -ing, Portuguese says the verb + de + infinitive. Never use the Portuguese gerund (fumando, bebendo) in this slot.

The words

Parar is the everyday word for stopping an activity, whether for a moment or for good. It also works with weather and other things that simply stop happening.

O meu pai parou de trabalhar aos sessenta anos.
(My father stopped working at sixty.)
Finalmente parou de chover.
(It finally stopped raining.)

Deixar de is closer to quitting a habit. It means that something is no longer part of your life.

Deixei de comer carne no ano passado.
(I stopped eating meat last year.)

Terminar de means to finish doing something, so the activity is complete.

Ela terminou de ler o livro ontem.
(She finished reading the book yesterday.)

Desistir de means to give up. You can use it for abandoning an effort or a plan, and also for admitting defeat.

Depois de uma hora, desisti de procurar as chaves.
(After an hour, I gave up looking for the keys.)
Nunca desistas de aprender português!
(Never give up learning Portuguese!)

With a noun, desistir still needs de, which combines with the article: de + o = do, de + a = da.

Desistimos do nosso plano.
(We gave up on our plan.)
Watch out
Stop doing versus stop to do

Parar de means you end an activity. If you stop in order to do something else, use parar para.

Parámos para beber água.
(We stopped to drink some water.)
Deixar without de

When there is no de, deixar + infinitive means to let or allow. The two meanings are completely different, so keep an eye on that small word.

Os meus pais não me deixam sair à noite.
(My parents don't let me go out at night.)
Não deixar de

In the negative, não deixar de often means not to fail to do something. For example, não deixes de ligar means be sure to call.

Look-alikes

Acabar de can mean to finish doing, but acabei de chegar usually means I have just arrived. Cansar-se de also takes de, but it means to get tired of something, not to stop doing it.

Summary

When English says stop, quit, finish or give up followed by an -ing verb, Portuguese uses parar, deixar, terminar or desistir + de + infinitive: parei de fumar, terminei de comer, desisti de tentar. Never drop the de and never use a gerund after it. Also remember that deixar without de means to let.