The history of the Stop game and its names around the world
Stop, Scattergories, Categories, Tutti frutti, Basta, Bachillerato: it's the same game with many names. It has been played with pencil and paper for generations at home, at school and on long road trips, and every country has given it its own twist.
A pencil-and-paper classic
The idea is so simple that nobody knows who came up with it: a random letter is chosen and each player writes a word starting with that letter for every category, such as name, animal, country or color. The player with the most points wins, and answers nobody else thought of are worth more.
There is no known inventor or documented date of origin. Like many playground games, it spread by word of mouth, from older siblings to younger ones and from teachers to students. That's why it changes so much from place to place: the categories, the way the letter is picked and even the word you shout to end the round.
What it's called in each country
| Name | Where |
|---|---|
| Scattergories or Categories | United States and other English-speaking countries |
| Stop | Spain, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and many Spanish-speaking countries; also Brazil |
| Bachillerato | Chile |
| Tutti frutti | Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay |
| Basta | Mexico and much of Central America |
| Adedonha or Adedanha | Brazil |
| Petit Bac | France |
| Stadt, Land, Fluss | Germany ("city, country, river") |
| Nomi, cose, città | Italy ("names, things, cities") |
"Stop" and "Basta" come from the word players shout to end the round as soon as someone finishes. "Tutti frutti" is Italian for "all fruits", because each round mixes a bit of everything. In Brazil, "Adedonha" refers to fingers: players often show a number of fingers at the same time and count them to pick the letter.
Ways to pick the letter
- The silent alphabet: one person recites the alphabet in their head and another says "stop!" at any moment. Whatever letter they reached is the round's letter.
- Fingers: everyone shows fingers at the same time, they're added up and you count that many letters from A.
- A letter die: commercial versions use a die with letters on its faces.
- Automatic draw: in an online game like tutti.frutti, the letter is drawn for you, with no repeats until every letter has been used.
From the box game to playing online
In the late 1980s the game reached toy stores as Scattergories, a version with category cards and a letter die that made it very popular in the United States. In Latin America and Spain, though, it stayed mostly a pencil-and-paper game: all you need is a sheet of paper and a willingness to argue about whether "Kiwi" counts as an animal.
Smartphones made it possible to play at a distance. An online game takes care of the tedious parts of the paper version: it draws the letter, keeps time, compares everyone's answers and adds up the points. In tutti.frutti, an AI judge also settles disputed words, which have always been the source of the best arguments.
What hasn't changed
In every version, the heart of the game is the same: think fast, surprise everyone with answers nobody else came up with and laugh at the ones that can't be defended. To review how to play, see the Stop game rules, or find ideas in the Stop game categories.
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