There are a few different ways to say “stop” in Italian, depending on what you’re trying to say.
Here, you’ll learn 3 common ways that Italians say “stop”, how each one works, and some useful phrases you can start using in Italy.
Saying Stop in Italian with Fermarsi
You use fermarsi (to stop) in Italian when you’re talking about coming to a stop. It’s where the word la fermata (the stop) also comes from, like la fermata dell’autobus (the bus stop).
Fermarsi in the Present Tense
This is how fermarsi works in the present tense.
| Mi fermo | I stop | Mee FER-moh |
| Ti fermi | You stop | Tee FER-mee |
| Si ferma | S/he / you (formal) stops | See FER-mah |
| Ci fermiamo | We stop | Chee fer-MYAH-moh |
| Vi fermate | You (plural) stop | Vee fer-MAH-teh |
| Si fermano | They stop | See FER-mah-noh |
If you’re wondering what these little words mi, ti, si, etc. mean, they’re the Italian for “myself, yourself, him/herself, etc.”
So when you say “I stop” ( mi fermo ) you’re literally saying “I stop myself”. Although this sounds strange in English, we need these little words in Italian for it to make sense.
That’s because in Italian, with certain types of verbs you have to emphasize you're doing something to yourself, instead of someone or something else. The fancy grammar name for this is “reflexive verbs”.
You can read more about how they work on our blogpost what on Earth are Italian reflexive verbs?
Here’s how you can use fermarsi in a few phrases:
Mi fermo qui?* -Shall I stop here?
Mi fermo un attimo perché sono stanco. -I’m going to stop for a moment because I’m tired.
Ci fermiamo qui per prendere un caffè? -Shall we stop here to have (lit. take) a coffee?
Questo treno si ferma a Bologna. -This train stops at Bologna.
* You might hear a tassista (taxi driver) ask this question to check they’re stopping off at the right place.
Fermarsi in the Imperative
“The imperative” is the name for when you give orders or commands. So if you wanted to tell someone “stop!” a bit more urgently, you could use this.
Unlike English, where we just say “stop”, in Italian you have to change the word based on who you’re talking to.
For example, if you were speaking to a friend or someone you know well you’d say:
Fermati!
For example:
Fermati un secondo. C’è una bellissima vista! -Stop for a second. There’s a beautiful view!
You still have to use the little words like “yourself” or “ourselves” when you’re giving a command, so fermati literally means “stop yourself”.
If you were saying “stop” to someone you didn’t know very well, you’d say:
Si fermi!
For example:
Si fermi! Questa strada è solo pedonale. -Stop! This street is pedestrian-only.
If you wanted to say “let’s stop”, you’d say:
Fermiamoci!
For example:
Fermiamoci un attimo. Vorrei bere un po’ d’acqua. -Let’s stop for a second. I’d like to drink some water.
And then if you wanted to say “stop” to two or more people, in both formal and informal situations, you’d say
Fermatevi!
For example:
Fermatevi, questa non è la strada giusta. -Stop, this isn’t the right road.
Here’s how it all works summarized in a table:
| Fermati! | Stop! (you informal) | Fer-MAH-ttee |
| Si fermi! | Stop! (you formal) | See FEHR-mee |
| Fermiamoci! | Let’s stop! | Fer-MYAH-moh-chee |
| Fermatevi! | Stop! (you plural) | Fer-MAH-teh-vee |
💡 Good to know : In Italian, they actually use the English word “stop” sometimes. One of the ways they use it is to say “stop!”, like “don’t move any further”. And you’ll also see the English word used for stop signs as well.
Saying Stop in Italian with Smettere di
When you talk about stopping doing something in Italian, you use smettere (to stop), then you add the word di (literally from) , then the action.
For example:
Vorrei smettere di mangiare gelato, ma è troppo buono! -I’d like to stop eating ice-cream, but it’s too tasty!
Smettere in the present tense
Here’s how smettere works in the present tense.
| Smetto | I stop | SMEHT-toh |
| Smetti | You stop | SMEHT-tee |
| Smette | S/he / you (formal) stops | SMEHT-teh |
| Smettiamo | We stop | Smeht-TYAH-moh |
| Smettete | You (plural) stop | Smeht-TEH-teh |
| Smettono | They stop | SMEHT-toh-noh |
For example:
Quando smette di piovere possiamo uscire. -When it stops raining, we can go out.
Smetto di lavorare in luglio e vado in pensione. -I’m stopping working in July and I’m retiring (lit. going into retirement).
Smettono di vendere souvenirs vicino alla chiesa. -They’re stopping selling souvenirs near the church.
Smettere in the past tense
It’s also handy to know how to say what you’ve stopped doing, so here’s how it works to use smettere in the past tense.
| Ho smesso | I stopped | Oh SMEHS-soh |
| Hai smesso | You stopped | Eye SMEHS-soh |
| Ha smesso | He / she / you (formal) stopped | Ah SMEHS-soh |
| Abbiamo smesso | We stopped | Ahb-BYAH-moh SMEHS-soh |
| Avete smesso | You (plural) stopped | Ah-VEH-teh SMEHS-soh |
| Hanno smesso | They stopped | AHN-noh SMEHS-soh |
For example:
Ho smesso di mangiare caramelle. -I’ve stopped eating candy.
Ho smesso di fumare. -I’ve stopped smoking.
Avete smesso di mangiare carne? -Have you (plural) stopped eating meat?
Ha smesso di piovere? -Has it stopped raining?
Abbiamo smesso di usare le app per imparare l’italiano. -We’ve stopped using apps to learn Italian.
Hanno smesso di parlare in inglese quando sono in Italia. -They’ve stopped speaking English when they’re in Italy.
Stop in Italian with Basta
Basta (pronounced BAH-stah) is “stop” in the sense of “that’s it” or “that’s enough”.
Here are some other ways could might use it:
Basta fare foto di me mentre mangio! -Stop taking pictures of me while I’m eating!
Basta entrare in ogni negozio che vediamo! -Stop going into every shop we go past!
Visitiamo due città in Italia e basta. -We’re visiting two cities in Italy and that’s it.
You can also use basta by itself if you’re impatient, a bit like saying “enough!” or “enough already!”, but it can also be polite, depending on the context and the tone you use.
For example, if a waiter is heaping some grated parmesan on your pasta, or your Italian friend is filling up your bicchiere di vino (glass of wine) you could say:
Basta, grazie! -That’s enough, thank you!
3 Ways to Say Stop in Italian (And Useful Phrases): Review
Here’s a quick recap of the most common ways to say stop in Italian.
-
Fermarsi → To come to a stop
For example:
Ci fermiamo qui per prendere un caffè? -Shall we stop here to have (lit. take) a coffee?
Questo treno si ferma a Bologna. -This train stops at Bologna.
-
Smettere di → To stop doing something
For example:
Quando smette di piovere possiamo uscire. -When it stops raining, we can go out.
Smetto di lavorare in luglio e vado in pensione. -I’m stopping working in July and I’m retiring (lit. going into retirement).
-
Basta → That’s it, that’s enough
For example:
Basta entrare in ogni negozio che vediamo! -Stop going into every shop we see!
Visitiamo due città in Italia e basta. -We’re visiting two cities in Italy and that’s it.
K: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti! Hi everyone and welcome to Learn Italian with Joy of Languages. In this episode, you’ll hear how to say “stop” in Italian, but while we can say “stop” in lots of situations in English, Italian has different words for “stop” depending on what you’re talking about.
M: In a second, you’ll hear what some of those words for “stop” are , but before we get started, can we ask you a quick favore ? If you’re listening to this on your podcast app, could you click the subscribe or follow button? This way you’ll get notified when we release a new episode and you’ll help our podcast grow so we can keep making free lessons like this. Grazie !
K: One word for stop is:
M: Basta (x2) .
K: You use this word for “stop” if you’re wanting someone to stop doing something. Depending on the tone, it can either sound impatient, like saying “enough” or “enough already”, or it can also mean “that’s enough” in a more polite way.
M: For example, I could shout basta! if our dog, Brody, was doing something she wasn’t supposed to and we wanted her to stop, like [...].
K: Or if I was at an Italian’s house and they were serving me too much food, , which is something that could very easily happen in Italy, to stop them from serving me anymore I might say basta grazie, or “that’s enough, thank you.”
M: Basta, grazie (x2)
K: Another word for “to stop” in Italian is:
M: Fermarsi (x2) .
K: You use this word for stop in Italian to talk about physically coming to a stop, like stopping to take a picture or stopping to look at a shop window.
The little “si” at the end of fermarsi means “oneself”, so fermarsi literally means “to stop oneself”. This sounds very strange in English, but that’s just how Italians say it!
To say “I stop”, we literally say “myself, I stop”, which is mi fermo (x2).
M: For example, if you were a bit tired after a lot of walking in Italy and wanted to sit down, you could say mi fermo qui un secondo, I’ll stop here for a second. Literally:
Mi - myself
Fermo - I stop
Qui - here
Un - a
Secondo - second
Mi fermo qui un secondo.
K: Or you might hear a taxi driver use mi fermo qui as a question to double check where you’d like them to stop.
M: They’d just raise their voice at the end to show they’re asking a question: mi fermo qui? (x2).
K: If you wanted to say “we stop”, or “shall we stop” if you’re making a suggestion, it would be ci fermiamo. Literally:
Ci - ourselves
Fermiamo - we stop
You could use this one if you were going to suggest stopping to grab a coffee or a drink of water.
You might also want to ask if you can stop somewhere. Like , if you’re on a walking tour and you want to stop to take a picture, or maybe you’ve just seen a restaurant that looks like a nice place to eat.
M: In these situations, you could ask: ci possiamo fermare qui? - Can we stop here? Literally:
Ci - ourselves
Possiamo - we can
Fermare - stop
Qui - here
Ci possiamo fermare qui?
K: If you’ve heard of reflexive verbs, fermarsi , to stop oneself, belongs to that group. We need these little “self” words to specify that we’re stopping ourselves, rather than stopping other people. So “I stop” is literally “myself I stop”. Mi fermo . “We stop” is literally “ourselves, we stop”. Ci fermiamo . If this all feels new and confusing, don’t worry that’s normal. For now, you can just remember these phrases so you can’t start using them straight away in Italy. The rest will come later.
K: Now you’ve heard a few ways that you can use the word “stop” in Italian, let’s see what you can remember.
K: What’s a word for “stop” when you mean it in the sense of “stop doing that!”
[...]
M: Basta (x2) . Or, if you mean it in a polite way, like if you wanted to say “that’s enough thanks” when an Italian’s serving you food, you’d say: basta, grazie ( x2).
[...]
K: How would you say “I stop”? It’s the one we’d use in the phrase “I’ll stop here for a second”. Remember it’s literally “myself I stop”.
[...]
M: “ mi fermo (x2). So you could say mi fermo qui un secondo (x2).
[...]
K: And what about if you wanted to use it as a question to ask “should I stop here?”, like a taxi driver might say.
[...]
M: You’d say mi fermo qui?
K: And what about “can we stop here?” It literally means “ourselves we can stop”.
[...]
M: Ci possiamo fermare qui?
K: If you found it a bit tricky to understand how to use fermarsi , that’s very normal. If you want more detail about how “stop” works that you can revisit any time, you can go to our website.
M: There, you’ll also see another important word for “stop” that we haven’t mentioned in this episode. It’s not just an alternative for “stop” that you can choose if you prefer, it’s the word Italians use in certain situations for the phrase to make sense, so it’s really useful to know if you want to avoid mistakes.
K: Just click the link in the description to head over to our website, or go to italian.joyoflanguages.com/podcast and search for episode 231.
K: See you next time.
M: Or as we say in Italian.
Alla prossima!
Time to check your understanding and remember everything you just learned! Below you’ll find a mini-quiz and some vocabulary cards to help it all go in.
Quiz: 3 Ways to Say Stop in Italian
How much did you learn? Find out in the quiz!
Click here to take the quiz for this episode: 3 Ways to Say Stop in Italian
Vocabulary
Ci fermiamo qui per prendere un caffè? = Shall we stop here for a coffee?
Questo treno si ferma a Bologna = This train stops at Bologna
Fermati un secondo. C’è una bellissima vista! = Stop for a second. There’s a beautiful view!
Fermiamoci un attimo. Vorrei bere un po’ d’acqua = Let’s stop for a moment. I’d like to drink a bit of water
Quando smette di piovere possiamo uscire = When it stops raining, we can go out
Abbiamo smesso di usare le app per imparare l’italiano = We’ve stopped using apps to learn Italian
Basta entrare in ogni negozio che vediamo! = Stop going into each shop that we see!
Mi fermo qui? = Shall I stop here?
Mi fermo qui un secondo = I’m going to stop here for a second
Ci possiamo fermare qui? = Can we stop here?
Basta, grazie = That’s enough, thank you
Not sure how it works? Click here to watch the tutorial
