Meaning
停 is a common verb meaning to stop, cease, or come to a halt. It can refer to vehicles stopping or parking, activities ceasing, or the cessation of ongoing actions. This character appears in many everyday contexts from parking cars to stopping work.
Usage
Native speakers use 停 for both transitive actions (stopping something) and intransitive (coming to a stop). It's frequently combined with other characters like 停车 (park a car), 停止 (to cease), or 停电 (power outage). Unlike 站 (to stand), 停 emphasizes the action of stopping rather than the state of being stationary.
Examples
- 01这里不能停车。.You can't park here.
- 02雨停了，我们可以出去了。, .The rain has stopped, we can go out now.
Common collocations
- 停车to park a car
- 停止to stop; to cease
- 停电power outage
- 停下来to stop (and remain stopped)
Antonyms
Origin
The character 停 contains the person radical 亡 (rén) on the left and 亭 (tíng, pavilion) on the right. The pavilion component suggests a place where one stops to rest, which evolved into the general meaning of stopping.