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Il faut toujours s'arrêter à un feu.

Il faut toujours s'arrêter à un feu.
You must always stop at a traffic light.
From Lesson 56:General obligation (il faut)·French

Questions & Answers about Il faut toujours s'arrêter à un feu.

The translation says "You must", but the French says Il faut. Doesn't il mean "he"?
Il faut is a special phrase called an impersonal expression, meaning it doesn't refer to a specific person. Even though il usually means "he", here it acts like the "it" in "it is raining". The phrase il faut followed by an action like s'arrêter translates to a general rule: "it is necessary to", "one must", or a general "you must".
Why is it s'arrêter with an s' instead of just arrêter?
S'arrêter is a reflexive verb, which means the action reflects back on the person doing it (literally "to stop oneself"). In French, if you are stopping your own movement, you must use s'arrêter. You would only use the plain verb arrêter if you are stopping something else, like stopping a machine.
Doesn't feu usually mean "fire"?
Yes, the literal translation of un feu is "a fire". However, in the context of driving or crossing the street, it is the standard, everyday word for a traffic light. It is short for un feu de circulation.
Why does toujours go before s'arrêter?
In French, short adverbs like toujours (always) usually go immediately after the conjugated verb. Here, faut is the conjugated verb, so toujours is placed right after it, wedged between faut and the unconjugated verb s'arrêter.

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