Which sentence is correct?

United Arab Emirates
January 23, 2013 11:16am CST
Hello everybody, since I learned that the verb phrase (can't help) require an-ing form in the complement,I put it in a sentence but I need your correction after the word (stopping). Look at the sentence: I can't help stopping to eat chocolate. (or) I can't help stopping eating chocolate.
2 people like this
2 responses
@MandaLee (3756)
• United States
23 Jan 13
Hi, The sentence is either: 1. "I can't stop eating chocolate." or 2. "I can't help eating chocolate." As others have mentioned, the correct form of the verb phrase depends on the context.
• United Arab Emirates
25 Jan 13
Thank u very much Mandalee. The context plays an important role to make the meaning of the sentence in many cases.
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
23 Jan 13
hi smilemoon the two sentences are b oth correct but they both mean something different,. One is about stopping to eat chocolates like perhap you might have gone to a candy shop . the other one is about how you cannot resist eating one more chocolate.Which idea were you to write?
• United Arab Emirates
24 Jan 13
Aha! so they are both correct and both have different meaning. I liked how do u explained them. Thanks a lot.