VocabularyJLPT N5 · core

止まる

とまる
hepburn tomaru

to stop (intransitive)

Part of speech · godan-verb

Pattern visualization

no decomposition available

Examples

  1. バスが駅前に止まりました。
    The bus stopped in front of the station.
  2. 時計が止まっている。
    The clock has stopped.

Collocations

止まる (tomaru, to stop, intransitive)止める (tomeru, to stop, transitive)停止 (teishi, halt formal)駐車する (chuusha suru, to park)泊まる (tomaru, to stay overnight)

Mnemonic

Tomaru (止まる) is a godan intransitive verb — "something stops by itself." Paired transitive: tomeru (止める, ichidan) "to stop something." Kuruma ga tomaru (the car stops) vs kuruma o tomeru (stop the car). Watch the homophone 泊まる tomaru "to stay overnight" — same sound, different kanji and meaning, hoteru ni tomaru (stay at a hotel). A flagship Japanese intransitive / transitive pair — memorize godan + ichidan pairs (aru / akeru / shimaru / tomaru) in a table. Korean meomchuda / seuda and English stop (intr. / tr.) parallel.

Quick check

  1. Difference between "kuruma o tomeru" and "kuruma ga tomaru"?

Listed inJLPT N5 · core
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