And what a coincidence it is, because today you’ll be given a few precious pointers as to how to use the indefinite French pronoun<\/a> “On<\/em><\/span>“, which, as we know very well, can often cause some serious headache to the d\u00e9butants<\/em>\u00a0learners of the French language.<\/p>\n The first English word that should come right away to your mind about the French “on<\/em><\/strong>” is “one<\/strong><\/span>“, as in the expression “on<\/span> ne sait jamais<\/strong><\/em>” (“One never knows.”)<\/p>\n The French pronoun “on<\/em><\/strong>” can be used to refer to a person or to entities that are unknown to the speaker. For example, you can say: “On dit que…<\/strong><\/em>” (“It is said that…”, in the sense of “rumor has it that…”)<\/p>\n Or “On vous a envoy\u00e9 un bouquet de fleurs<\/a><\/em><\/strong>” (“Someone sent you a bouquet of flowers.”)<\/p>\n Another usage of\u00a0on\u00a0<\/em>in French is the equivalent of\u00a0la voix passive<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(passive voice.)<\/p>\n Informally, “on” can be used as a synonym of “nous<\/strong>“<\/em>\u00a0(“we”):<\/p>\n “Je sens qu’on va beaucoup s’amuser<\/em><\/strong>” (“I feel like we’re going to have a lot of fun.”)<\/p>\n When it’s used in the meaning of “nous<\/em>”\u00a0in writing, usually the adjectives and past participles have to agree in gender and number with the referred people.<\/p>\n \u00a0For example, if you want to say “We are very happy about the results of our team”, you write: “On<\/span> est tr\u00e8s contents<\/span> des resultats de notre \u00e9quipe<\/em><\/em><\/strong>“<\/p>\n Again, this is only if you mean to be informal in your writing, such as in an SMS<\/a><\/strong> or a Facebook<\/a><\/strong> chat for example.<\/p>\n Aside from “nous<\/em><\/strong>“, “on<\/strong><\/em>” can be used instead of other persons. For example, if you don’t want to say “tu<\/strong><\/em>” or “vous<\/strong><\/em>“, you can say “on<\/strong><\/em>” instead: “Je vois qu’on<\/span> a encore oubli\u00e9 de faire ses devoirs<\/strong>…<\/em>“, in the sense of “I see that [someone\/some people] once again forgot to do their homework…”<\/p>\n Finally, in formal style, “on<\/em><\/strong>” is often written with an “l’<\/strong><\/em>“, as in “l’on<\/em><\/strong><\/span>“, which can be regarded as more elegant than just “on<\/strong><\/em>” by itself.<\/p>\n In her “Notre-Dame de Paris<\/a><\/strong>“, \u00c9dith Piaf sings:<\/p>\n “Dans le jardin de\u00a0Notre-Dame<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n In the garden of Notre-Dame<\/p>\n O\u00f9 l\u2019on<\/span> se fait de bons amis<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Where one<\/strong> makes good friends.”<\/p>\n More on French pronouns here on the Transparent French Blog:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/08\/ici-on-parle-francais-350x237.jpg\")