σταματάω is labile: the same active form stops something and stops by itself, with nothing added and nothing switched. Σταμάτησα το αυτοκίνητο and Σταμάτησε η βροχή differ only in whether an object turned up. Most Greek verbs need a mediopassive to make that turn, so σταματάω belongs to a small, very frequent club — αλλάζω, αρχίζω, τελειώνω, γυρίζω — mapped on active–passive pairs.
Principal parts
| Slot | Forms | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Present | σταματάω/σταματώ, σταματάς, σταματάει/σταματά, σταματάμε/σταματούμε, σταματάτε, σταματάνε/σταματούν(ε) | -άω (informal) beside -ώ (formal) |
| Imperfect | σταματούσα — also σταμάταγα (informal) | |
| Aorist | σταμάτησα | the default -ησα; ×σταμάτισα is a spelling slip, not a form |
| Dependent (θα, να) | σταματήσω | |
| Imperative | σταμάτα / σταματάτε · σταμάτησε / σταματήστε | imperfective · perfective |
| Perfect | έχω σταματήσει | |
| Gerund | σταματώντας | |
| Participle | σταματημένος, -η, -ο | stationary, stopped: σταματημένο αυτοκίνητο |
| Mediopassive | σταματιέμαι — present stem only | narrow but real, see below; the dictionary gives it no perfective passive |
| Family | το σταμάτημα · η στάση · ασταμάτητος |
One form, both valencies
Σταμάτησα το αυτοκίνητο στην άκρη για να απαντήσω.
stamátisa to aftokínito stin ákri ya na apandíso
I pulled the car over to answer.
Σταμάτησε η βροχή, μπορούμε να βγούμε.
stamátise i vrochí, borúme na vghúme
The rain has stopped — we can go out.
Δεν σταμάτησε στο κόκκινο και τον έγραψε η κάμερα.
dhen stamátise sto kókino ke ton éghrapse i kámera
He didn't stop at the red light and the camera got him.
The rain sentence is the one English speakers over-engineer. Because the rain was stopped means something else in English, learners look for a passive in Greek too — and there is none to look for. An intransitive σταματάω is not a passive with the agent hidden; it is the plain verb with nothing in the object slot.
The switch also decides who the sentence is about. Σταμάτησέ τον asks you to cut a person short; Σταμάτησε on its own reports that he stopped of his own accord. Nothing but the object separates them, which means the object is carrying information an English sentence would put in the voice of the verb.
Government
| Frame | Example | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| accusative object | Σταμάτα τη μηχανή. | stop a thing or a person |
| no object | Σταμάτησε το ρολόι. | the subject stopped |
να
| Σταμάτησα να καπνίζω. | gave up doing |
για να
| Σταμάτησα για να καπνίσω. | stopped in order to do |
σε
| Σταματάει σε κάθε χωριό. | where the halt happens |
In the quitting sense the dependent after σταματάω να is imperfective, because what you stop was in progress; the axis σταματάω shares with συνεχίζω is drawn there, and the verbs that open a να frame at all are listed on να after modals.
The pair English cannot keep apart
Σταμάτησα να καπνίζω τον Ιανουάριο και δεν το έχω μετανιώσει.
stamátisa na kapnízo ton Ianuário ke dhen to écho metaniósi
I gave up smoking in January and I haven't regretted it.
Σταματήσαμε για να πιούμε καφέ στα μισά της διαδρομής.
stamatísame ya na piúme kafé sta misá tis dhiadhromís
We stopped for a coffee halfway.
Σταμάτα να γκρινιάζεις και βοήθησε λίγο.
stamáta na griniázis ke voíthise lígho
Stop moaning and help a bit.
Δεν σταματιέται
The brief mediopassive is worth knowing because you will meet it before you can build it. σταματιέμαι exists only on the present stem, effectively only in the third person, and almost always under a negative: it says that somebody or something cannot be stopped. The dictionary marks it exactly that way — passive on the present stem — and gives it no perfective half; for a real passive event Greek uses the active τον σταμάτησαν.
Why is the paradigm cut off there? Because the form is not reporting an event at all. It reports a property — that this person or thing is not stoppable — and properties sit on the imperfective stem. That is also why the negative is all but obligatory: an affirmative σταματιέται would claim somebody is stoppable, which is seldom worth saying. A perfective σταματήθηκε is not impossible, but it is rare and almost always agentive — σταματήθηκε από την άμυνα — where Greek usually prefers διακόπηκε.
Μόλις πιάσει την κιθάρα, δεν σταματιέται με τίποτα.
mólis piási tin kithára, dhen stamatiéte me típota
Once he picks up the guitar there's no stopping him.
Ένα σταματημένο φορτηγό έκλεινε όλο τον δρόμο.
éna stamatiméno fortighó ékline ólo ton dhrómo
A lorry at a standstill was blocking the whole road.
One note on the commands: σταμάτα and σταματήστε are not merely singular against plural. σταματήστε is also what you say to a single person you address formally, and it is the form that turns up on signs, in announcements and from anyone in uniform.
Set phrases
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Σταμάτα! | Stop it! — to a person, about behaviour |
| σταματάω στο κόκκινο | stop at a red light |
| δεν σταματάει το τηλέφωνο | the phone hasn't stopped ringing |
| σταμάτησε η καρδιά του | his heart stopped |
| χωρίς να σταματήσω | without stopping, in one go |
| σταματημένο μυαλό (informal) | a slow, stuck sort of mind |
| σταματά ο νους του ανθρώπου | it beggars belief |
Δεν σταματάει το τηλέφωνο σήμερα, κάτι θα έχει γίνει.
dhen stamatái to tiléfono símera, káti tha échi yíni
The phone hasn't stopped today — something must have happened.
Σταμάτα, σε παρακαλώ, δεν αντέχω άλλο.
stamáta, se parakaló, dhen andécho álo
Stop it, please, I can't take any more.
The verb at the other end is ξεκινάω; the class is indexed on principal parts.
Key Takeaways
- σταματάω/σταματώ · σταματούσα · σταμάτησα · να σταματήσω · σταμάτα / σταματήστε · έχω σταματήσει · σταματώντας.
- It is labile: one active form for stop something and stop. No passive is needed for Σταμάτησε η βροχή.
- να = the thing you gave up; για να = your purpose in halting. English "stop to" is για να.
- σταματιέμαι is real but tiny: present stem, third person, normally negated — δεν σταματιέται. The rare perfective σταματήθηκε belongs elsewhere, to agentive "was stopped by" sentences.
- σταματημένος is ordinary Greek for stationary, stalled or stuck.
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- συνεχίζω (to continue)B1 — Συνεχίζεται — 'to be continued' — is one of the most-read words in Greek media, and it is this verb's third-person mediopassive. Full forms, the ε in συνέχισα that is stem material rather than an augment, the imperfective that always follows συνεχίζω να, and the axis it shares with σταματάω.
- ξεκινάω/ξεκινώ (to start/set off)A2 — Not a synonym of αρχίζω: ξεκινάω has a motion sense αρχίζω lacks — cars, journeys and prices all ξεκινάνε. Principal parts, the six complement frames, and why the aspect after να does not tell you which ξεκινάω you are looking at.
- να After Modal VerbsA2 — The everyday frame [modal + να + verb] — θέλω να, μπορώ να, πρέπει να, ξέρω να, πάω να, αρχίζω να — where both verbs are fully conjugated, unlike the single infinitive of English 'want to leave'.
- Active/Passive Verb PairsB2 — The causative–inchoative alternation that learners mistake for a passive — καίω/καίγομαι, κουράζω/κουράζομαι — plus the labile actives that need no voice change at all (σταματάω, τελειώνω, γυρίζω, ανοίγω, σπάω), the suppletive pairs ανεβάζω/ανεβαίνω, and the middles that have drifted into new words (χάνομαι, βρίσκομαι, φέρομαι).