deixar de + Infinitive

Deixar De for Stopping an Action

Level 3

Deixar de + infinitive means stopping or ceasing an activity.

How It Works

Ha deixat de fumar says the smoking has stopped. Conjugate deixar for the time and person, but keep the following infinitive unchanged. De elides before a vowel-initial infinitive: deixar d'estudiar.

Do not confuse deixar de fer with deixar fer. The latter can mean letting someone do something, because the de is absent. Deixar el llibre, with a noun object, can mean leaving or lending the book according to context. The full construction determines the meaning.

Under negation, no deixa de parlar can mean the person keeps talking. No deixis de trucar can encourage someone to be sure to call rather than merely discussing the cessation of a habit. Learn these uses through the whole sentence, while keeping the positive stop-doing pattern as the foundation.

Examples (3)

  1. Ha deixat de fumar.

    She has stopped smoking.

  2. Vam deixar de parlar quan va entrar.

    We stopped talking when he entered.

  3. No deixava de ploure.

    It would not stop raining.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

deixar de + InfinitiveLevel 3Deixar De for Stopping an Action

Learn This First

Preserve or elide de before the following infinitive.

Words in This Pattern

deixar de