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Au feu rouge, la femme à vélo s'arrête toujours.

Au feu rouge, la femme à vélo s'arrête toujours.
At the red light, the woman on a bike always stops.
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Questions & Answers about Au feu rouge, la femme à vélo s'arrête toujours.

Why is it au feu rouge and not à le feu rouge?

In French, the preposition à combines with the definite article le to form the contraction au:

  • à + le = au
  • à + les = aux

So à le feu rouge is grammatically incorrect; it must be au feu rouge.

Literally, au feu rouge means at the red light / at the traffic light.

Does feu rouge literally mean red fire? How does it mean traffic light?

Literally, feu rouge is red light or red fire, but in everyday French:

  • un feu (de circulation) or un feu rouge = a traffic light (specifically when it's red)

So:

  • Au feu rouge = At the red light / At the traffic light (when it’s red)

The word feu has several meanings (fire, light, traffic light), and here context makes it clear it’s the traffic light.

Why is there a comma after Au feu rouge? Could that phrase go somewhere else in the sentence?

Au feu rouge is a prepositional phrase indicating when/where the action takes place. It’s put at the beginning for emphasis and separated by a comma, which is very natural in French.

You can move it:

  • Au feu rouge, la femme à vélo s'arrête toujours.
  • La femme à vélo s'arrête toujours au feu rouge.

Both are correct and mean the same thing. Putting Au feu rouge first slightly emphasizes the location/time (at the red light).

What exactly does la femme à vélo mean? Is it the woman with a bike or on a bike?

La femme à vélo literally looks like the woman at/by bike, but idiomatically it means:

  • the woman on a bike,
  • the woman who is cycling,
  • or simply the woman on the bicycle.

The structure [person] à [mode of transport] is common:

  • un homme à moto = a man on a motorbike
  • les touristes à pied = the tourists on foot

So la femme à vélo is a natural way to say the woman on a bike in French.

Why is it à vélo and not en vélo?

For transport, French uses different prepositions depending on the mode:

  • en
    • transport you are inside:
      en voiture (by car), en train (by train), en bus, en avion…
  • à
    • transport you are on (exposed/outside) or on foot:
      à vélo (by bike), à moto, à cheval (on horseback), à pied (on foot)

Since you are on a bike, not inside it, French uses à vélo, not en vélo.
En vélo is not standard and will sound wrong to native speakers.

What’s the difference between s'arrête and arrête?

Arrêter is a verb that can be:

  • transitive: arrêter quelque chose / quelqu'un = to stop something / someone
    • La femme arrête le vélo. = The woman stops the bike.
  • pronominal / reflexive: s'arrêter = to stop oneself, to come to a stop
    • La femme s'arrête. = The woman stops.

In your sentence:

  • la femme à vélo s'arrête toujours = the woman on the bike always stops (herself)

If you said la femme à vélo arrête toujours, it would sound incomplete, like the woman on the bike always stops… (what?)

Why is it s'arrête and not se arrête?

The reflexive pronoun is se, but in front of a verb beginning with a vowel or mute h, French uses elision: the e disappears and is replaced by an apostrophe:

  • se + arrête → s'arrête
  • se + habille → s'habille
  • je + aime → j'aime

So:

  • Il se lave. (consonant)
  • Il s'arrête. (vowel → elision)
What does toujours mean here, and why is it at the end of the sentence?

Toujours has two main meanings:

  1. Always (habitual action):
    • La femme s'arrête toujours. = The woman always stops.
  2. Still (continuing action):
    • Il est toujours là. = He is still there.

In La femme à vélo s'arrête toujours, it clearly means always (a habit).

Position:
Most often, toujours goes right after the conjugated verb:

  • Elle s'arrête toujours.

Here it’s at the end, but still immediately after the verb, because:

  • The verb is s'arrête.
  • Toujours is the adverb modifying that verb.

You could also say:

  • La femme à vélo s'arrête toujours au feu rouge.

Here toujours still comes right after s'arrête.

Why is the verb in the present tense (s'arrête) if this describes a habitual action like always stops?

In French, the simple present is used for:

  • Actions happening right now
  • Regular/habitual actions
  • General truths

So:

  • La femme à vélo s'arrête toujours.
    = She always stops. (habitual)
  • Je vais au travail tous les jours. = I go to work every day.

French does not need a separate tense like English “does stop” / “is always stopping”. The plain present covers all of these uses.

Why is it feu rouge and not feu rouge with some agreement change? How do noun + color agreements work?

Feu is masculine singular:

  • un feu rouge = a red light / red traffic light

Rouge is an adjective of color, and here it matches:

  • gender: masculine
  • number: singular

So rouge stays in its masculine singular form: un feu rouge, le feu rouge.

With plural:

  • des feux rouges (notice feux is the irregular plural of feu)

General rule:

  • Adjectives normally agree in gender and number with the noun:
    un vélo rouge, une voiture rouge, des vélos rouges, des voitures rouges.
  • Most color adjectives go after the noun: un vélo rouge, un manteau bleu.
Why is it la femme and not une femme? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, la and une change the nuance:

  • la femme à vélo = the woman on the bike (a specific woman that speaker/listener can identify, or the woman being talked about in context)
  • une femme à vélo = a woman on a bike (any woman, not specific)

The sentence with la suggests we are talking about a particular woman (maybe someone the speaker sees regularly at that traffic light).

Could we say La cycliste s'arrête toujours au feu rouge instead? Is that equivalent to la femme à vélo?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct and natural:

  • La cycliste s'arrête toujours au feu rouge.
    = The (female) cyclist always stops at the red light.

Differences in nuance:

  • la femme à vélo: literally the woman on a bike; it emphasizes she is a woman who is on a bike right now.
  • la cycliste: the cyclist (feminine); it describes her more by her role or activity, like a label or identity.

Both are correct; choice depends on what you want to emphasize.