What's the difference between 止まる and 止める?

Question:

What's the difference between 止まる and 止める? I wrote an explanation but i'm not sure.?
I know in japanese a verb has two forms. But because i'm learning japanese by myself, sometimes is hard to learn new things. But here is an explanation about what I think is the difference (based on the articles I've read for example in Yahoo 知恵袋).

The difference between tomaru and tomeru is that one indicates that the action is done by the speaker and the other indicates that the action takes place out of the speaker's will. For example.

"I stopped when i heard the cat cry" "猫の鳴き声を聞いた時止めたよ。===> In this case the action is done by the speaker.
"She stopped the car only using her hands" (彼女は)手が使うだけで車を止まった。=== Here the action is not done by the speaker and does not involve de speaker neither.

Others examples:
"let's gather 'round" "集めよう!"
"she gathered all the fruits fallen from the tree " (彼女が)木に落とされた果物を集まった" [I know that 拾う works better here)

"I decided to take the last train to arrive late to your house"
君の家に遅く着くために終発に乗ることが決めた。
"It has been decided that Tanaka will be hospitalized because of the state of his illness"
田中さんの病気の具合によって入院することが決まりました。

Am i right??? Or is there something i need to brush up about my understanding?

Posdate: Sorry if my japanese sentences arent understandable just guide your self from the english translation ^_^. Is really hard for me to study by myself so most of the time i'm not sure about my sentences.

Answer:

止まる is intransitive （自動詞） and 止める is transitive （他動詞）. It's kind of hard to understand in English since we only have 3 transitive-intransitive pairs:
raise and rise
fell and fall
lay and lie

Raise your hand. (transitive)
The elevator is rising. (intransitive)

They felled the tree. (transitive)
I am falling. (intransitive)

She lays down to sleep. (transitive)
The book is lying there. (intransitive)


Notice that intransitive verbs can be used with "I"; this is because nothing is causing "me" to fall. So, if a verb is transitive it needs something to cause it to happen (direct object), whether it be the speaker or someone else, and an intransitive verb occurs on its own.

猫がいたから車を止めた。 Because there was a cat I stopped the car.
猫がいたから車が止まった。 Because there was a cat the car stopped. (This doesn't necessarily mean no one made the car stop, it just means that there is no direct object to stop the car in this sentence.)

Note also that transitive verbs use を but (most) intransitive verbs use が (some exceptions do exist, like 通る).


Other examples:
手を上げています。 I'm raising my hand.
エレベータが上がっています。 The elevator is rising.

ごみを出した。 I took out the trash.
日が出た。 The sun came out.

電気を消します。 Turn off the lights.
電気が消えます。 The lights turn off (on their own).


わかりますか？