Stop at or stop by

You can use 'at', or 'by', and the possessive apostrophe and s are required because you are stopping by/at John's house/flat/apartment/home, although that word is omitted.

I suspect, without knowing, that "stopping by" was initially used in conjunction with places that were on or very near a route you were planning on taking anyway. If so, it's no longer confined to that, really.

Still, if you are going substantially out of your way to see someone you would generally use something like "visit" or "go see" instead of "stopping at/by."

Cambridge Dictionary: "stop by (somewhere) — phrasal verb with stop - to visit someone for a short time, usually on the way to another place"

Verb phrases ending in 'by' are used when something happens on the way to somewhere: pass by, go by, etc. These days some people say 'swing by' to indicate a similar idea to 'stop by', but with the sense of briefly interrupted motion emphasised. You can 'stop by' somewhere even if it is not on the most direct route between your starting point and destination: if I go home via Camberwell, I can stop by Mother's house and see her new dog.

Last week I went banging on the front door of this fine-ass teenage girl that I've been stalking for about a year now.

Her dad came to the door and I said: "Oh, hello, Mr. Smith. I was in the neighborhood so I thought I would stop by to say hello to Julia."

He said: "That so, layman, ya damn perv, ya? Tellya what...here, say "hello" to my little friend."

That's when he hauled out his double-barreled sawed off shotgun and squeezed off both barrels.

Too late! I had already dove over the porch railing and was running like a bat out of hell.

Point is, it's not always advisable to just "stop by." Tonight I will park about a block from her house, wait for her to leave, then follow her to wherever she's going. Then I will approach her, noting how "coincidental" (code for ordained by God and fate) it is that we just happened to be in the same vicinity, ya know?

I work at Elephant and Castle, and live in Streatham, in this example. To get home, I could just jump on a Thameslink train direct, but if I want to stop by at Mother's, I can get a 68 bus to Camberwell Green, where she lives, then later board another 68 to Tulse Hill and walk home from there.

How do I quote your words?

For instance, what should I do to write this in my reply?

centrox wrote:
if I go home via Camberwell, I can stop by Mother's house and see her new dog.

Please explain what you are asking.

What did you do to report my words, that is, "paok1970 wrote:....."?

Technically, what should I do?

In this instance, I quoted your entire post by choosing to "quote" rather than simply "reply" to your post. Those options are given at the top.

If I wanted to quote you selectively (partially) I could do it one of two ways:

1. Hit "quote" (the entire post) and then edit (delete some of) your post before hitting "reply," or

2. Put quote=paok1970 (in brackets) before your words and then, [/quote] at the end.

Go to the bottom of any page - select "my preferences"

Once you are at that page, check that you have selected yes - next to the 'show quote button' option

Yeah, what Beth said, too. I forgot you had to choose "quote" as an option in order for it to appear.

Would you please explain option #2 further?

Thanks again for your kind help

Is it "to stop by Mother's" or "to stop by at Mother's"?

Thanks again for your kind help.

If I actually do it, then it will show up as a quote, not an explanation.

Say I want to put this in quotes: "You are good."

Before the word "you" I would type "quote" and put it in brackets []

If I want to say who I am quoting, then I would add "=somebody" after the word "quote" in the brackets. It would then come out like this:

Edit: your quote of me (which I quoted) left this out:

put "/quote" in brackets when you want to finish quoting, like this:

[/quote]

Looks like you got it now.