Learn Hardcore French: Il faut éteindre la télévision avant de dormir. - You must turn off the television before going to sleep.

Il faut literally: “it is necessary (to)…”
In natural English, we usually translate it as:
- “you have to…”
- “one must…”
- “we need to…”

The “il” here does not refer to a person (not “he”). It’s a dummy subject, like the “it” in “it is raining” or “it is necessary to…”.

So:

Il faut éteindre la télévision
≈ It is necessary to turn off the TV / You have to turn off the TV.

Could I say “On doit éteindre la télévision avant de dormir” instead? What’s the difference with “Il faut”?

Yes, you can say:

On doit éteindre la télévision avant de dormir.

It’s grammatically correct and means almost the same thing.

Nuance:

Il faut…
- Very common, quite impersonal and general:
  “It is necessary to…” / “You have to…” (general rule or advice).
On doit…
- Uses the verb devoir (“must / have to”).
- on usually means “we” or “people in general / you in general”.
- Sounds a bit more like “we have to…” specifically.

Both are fine in everyday speech; il faut is especially common for giving general rules or advice.

What tense is “faut” in, and what is the full verb?

Faut is the third‑person singular present tense of the verb falloir:

falloir (impersonal verb)
- il faut = it is necessary / one must

Only il is used with falloir:

il faut – present (it is necessary)
il a fallu – past (it was necessary)
il faudra – future (it will be necessary)

You never say je faus, tu faus, etc. They simply don’t exist.

Why is it “éteindre” and not “fermer” or “arrêter” the television?

In French, the standard verbs are:

éteindre = to turn off / switch off (lights, TV, devices, etc.)
allumer = to turn on / switch on

So:

éteindre la télévision = to turn off the TV
allumer la télévision = to turn on the TV

Fermer usually means “to close” (a door, a window, a shop, etc.), not to switch off a device.
Arrêter la télévision can be understood as “stop the TV”, but it’s less standard for “turning it off”; people much more commonly say éteindre la télévision.

Also note: éteindre is irregular:

j’éteins
tu éteins
il / elle éteint
nous éteignons
vous éteignez
ils / elles éteignent

Past participle: éteint (J’ai éteint la télévision.)

Why is it “la télévision” and not just “télévision” without an article?

In French, common nouns almost always need an article (or another determiner). So you normally can’t say just “télévision” by itself the way you can say “TV” in English.

Here, la télévision uses the definite article la:

la télévision = the TV

Why the definite article?

It usually refers to the TV in this context, understood by both speaker and listener — probably the TV in the room/house.
French often uses the definite article where English might use “the” or no article at all.

Alternatives:

la télé (very common, informal)
la télévision (a bit more formal / neutral)

You would not say “Il faut éteindre télévision” — that’s incorrect.

Can I replace “la télévision” with a pronoun, like “la”?

Yes. You can replace la télévision (feminine singular) with the direct object pronoun la:

Il faut l’éteindre avant de dormir.

Here:

l’ = la, shortened before a vowel sound (éteindre).

Word order:

The pronoun la / l’ goes before the infinitive éteindre, because it’s the object of that verb.

So:

Il faut éteindre la télévision…
→ Il faut l’éteindre…

Why is it “avant de dormir” and not just “avant dormir”?

In French, when “avant” is followed by a verb in the infinitive, you must add “de”:

avant de + infinitive

Examples:

avant de dormir = before sleeping
avant de manger = before eating
avant de partir = before leaving

So “avant dormir” is incorrect in standard French.
You must say “avant de dormir”.

What’s the difference between “avant de + infinitive” and “avant que + verb”? Could I say “avant qu’on dorme”?

Yes, you can use both structures, but they’re used differently:

avant de + infinitive
- Used when the subject of both actions is the same.
- Il faut éteindre la télévision avant de dormir.
  → The same “general person” (you/we/one) both turns off the TV and sleeps.
avant que + verb (subjunctive)
- Used when the subject of the second verb is different, or when you want to introduce a full clause.
- It requires the subjunctive.
Example:
- Il faut éteindre la télévision avant que les enfants dorment.
  = You must turn off the TV before the children sleep.

You could say:

Il faut éteindre la télévision avant qu’on dorme.

This is grammatically possible (and dorme is subjunctive), but in everyday speech, when the subject is the same, French strongly prefers avant de + infinitive:

Il faut éteindre la télévision avant de dormir.
is more natural than
Il faut éteindre la télévision avant qu’on dorme.

Who is actually doing the sleeping and turning off the TV? There’s no “I”, “you”, or “we” in the sentence.

Everything is expressed impersonally, but the meaning is:

The same general person (you / we / people) must:
1. turn off the TV
2. sleep

In French:

Il faut éteindre la télévision…
→ general obligation: “you/we have to turn off the TV…”
…avant de dormir.
→ same generic subject: “…before (you/we) sleep.”

So there’s an understood subject of both éteindre and dormir, but it’s left unsaid because il faut + infinitive expresses a general rule or recommendation.

Could I say “Il faut qu’on éteigne la télévision avant de dormir”? How is that different?

Yes, you can say:

Il faut qu’on éteigne la télévision avant de dormir.

This uses the structure:

Il faut que + subject + subjunctive

Explanation:

Il faut qu’on éteigne
- Literally: “It is necessary that we turn off…”
- éteigne is subjunctive (from éteindre).
This sounds a bit more specific: it explicitly says that we (on) must do it.

Subtle differences:

Il faut éteindre la télévision…
- More impersonal / general.
Il faut qu’on éteigne la télévision…
- More clearly “we have to turn off the TV”.

Both are correct. In everyday speech, both structures are common; the “que + subjunctive” version just makes the subject explicit.

Is “télévision” feminine? How do I know, and does it affect anything here?

Yes, télévision is feminine in French:

la télévision
une télévision
cette télévision

How it shows up in the sentence:

Article: la (feminine singular definite article).
If you replace it with a pronoun: la → l’éteindre.
Any adjective referring to it would also be feminine:
- la vieille télévision (the old TV)
- la grande télévision (the big TV)

There’s no magic rule to know the gender; it’s part of the word’s dictionary entry. When you learn a noun in French, it’s best to learn it with its article (e.g. la télévision, le livre, etc.).

Can I change the word order, like “Avant de dormir, il faut éteindre la télévision”?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct:

Avant de dormir, il faut éteindre la télévision.

This just moves the time phrase “Avant de dormir” to the beginning of the sentence, for emphasis or style. The meaning is unchanged:

Before sleeping, you have to turn off the TV.

Both orders are natural:

Il faut éteindre la télévision avant de dormir.
Avant de dormir, il faut éteindre la télévision.

How would I say this sentence in the negative, like “You must not turn off the TV before sleeping”?

To make “il faut” negative, use ne … pas around faut, and keep the infinitive as is:

Il ne faut pas éteindre la télévision avant de dormir.
= You must not / should not turn off the TV before sleeping.

Structure:

Il ne faut pas + infinitive + …

More examples:

Il ne faut pas parler si fort.
= You must not / shouldn’t speak so loudly.
Il ne faut pas manger trop tard.
= You shouldn’t eat too late.

Note: In casual spoken French, people often drop the ne and just say:

Faut pas éteindre la télévision avant de dormir.

But in writing and more careful speech, keep ne … pas.