arrêter vs s'arrêter and "we all cross fingers" vs "we cross all our fingers"

Question

For I haven't stopped all day..., shouldn't one say, "Je n'ai pas m'arrêté une minute... (i.e., i haven't stopped myself). Isn't arrêter alone mean arrêter + qqch ? Or in the case it is implying "Je n'ai pas m'arrête (+faire qqch) so the reflexive is not used.

Also in French is there a way to distinguish: 1) We are all keeping our fingers crossed, and 2) We are keeping all our fingers crossed? (or in general: We are all selling our qqch vs. We are selling all of our qqch where qqch is a masculine noun? ).

Accepted Answer

Hi Earl,
1. This is an interesting question - 
in fact we use -
ne pas arrêter une minute 
for 
not to stop for even a moment 
Je n'ai pas arrêté une minute depuis qu'il est arrivé = I haven't stopped for a moment/once since he arrived
If you used the reflexive it would be -
Je ne me suis pas arrêté/e une minute ...
But the first version is more idiomatic and used.
2. Both would be, 
on croise les doigts
You don't normally specify all of them
Bonne Continuation!

Answer

Hi Cécile,I came here for the second question, where Earl's asking whether it's possible to specify in French whether you mean "we're ALL crossing our fingers" or "we're crossing ALL our fingers" (and by extension "we're all selling our qch" and "we're selling all our qch"), since the translation given for the English "we're all crossing our fingers" here was "nous croisons tous les doigts", which looks ambiguous to us anglophones. I tried "nous tous croisons les doigts" but it didn't fly :) Many thanks!

Answer

Bonjour Joanna,
In this sentence, "tous" doesn't change meaning but its pronunciation does:
Nous croisent tous [tooss] nos (les) doigts = they all cross our fingers
 -> tous refers to 'nous'
Nous croisent tous [too] nos doigts = they all cross their fingers
 -> tous refers to 'doigts' 
Attention: the last example would sound strange in French as it would imply they are crossing each finger (physically)
Also, the possessive adjectives should be used here instead of the definite article to reduce the ambiguity as to whose fingers they are: possessive adjectives with body parts in French
We'll be amending this particular sentence so as to avoid any ambiguity.
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !