‘On’ is usually understod to mean ‘one’ in English, but it has other less known applications in everyday usage. This article will touch on the ways this versatile pronoun can be employed to achieve a more natural–sounding speech pattern.

The pronoun ‘you’ is often used to speak generally and hypothetically about an unnamed or unspecified person. This is common in sayings and the giving of advice →  e.g. ‘If you drink, then don’t drive’. The ‘you’ in this sentence is referring to people in general and no one in particular (though it would follow that the statement is really only relevant to people who drink). Of course, depending on the context this statement could equally be directed at a particular person. Another option is the pronoun ‘we’, which is frequently used in everyday sayings: ‘We often take things for granted until we lose them’. This use of ‘we’ is inclusive, and thus is well-suited to pithy sayings, philosophical musings about life and the like.

A third option is the pronoun ‘one’, but in modern English it sounds rather old-fashioned and a bit pretentious (except when used humorously or for effect). If in casual conversation you say ‘If one drinks, then one should not drive’ you will probably attract quite a few raised eyebrows. ‘One’ is best reserved for the written word and imparting an archaic flavour. In everyday usage ‘you’ and ‘we’ will suffice.

It might come as a surprise then, that the French equivalent of the general ‘you’ is the pronoun on. ‘On’ is usually understood to mean ‘one’, and in fact it does. However, it also corresponds to the general ‘you’. Let’s look at a few examples:

Si on boit, on ne doit pas conduire →  ‘On’ here can be translated as either ‘one’ or ‘you’ depending on the context; for all intents and purposes both translations carry the same meaning.  

On est parfois l’obstacle à son bonheur →  We sometimes stand in the way of our own happiness. This usage of ‘we’ is of the non-specific kind. ‘On’ can also be used in a specific way to mean ‘we’, replacing ‘nous’ in everyday discourse: On a gagné le match hier soir! – We won the game last night! (i.e. ‘Nous avons gagné le match hier soir’). Even when used in this manner, on is still conjugated as normal (i.e. in third-person singular); we don’t say ‘on avons gagné’.

Does this mean that ‘nous’ is never used in speech? Not at all. In casual conversation ‘on’ is more likely to be used spontaneously, but there is no hard-and-fast rule and it often depends on the speaker.

Sometimes, speakers may start a sentence with ‘nous’ but use ‘on’ right after: Nous, on va rester ici. The ‘nous’ here is a disjunctive pronoun and is merely there for emphasis. While it can’t really be translated by itself in this context, it means something along the lines of ‘as for us…’.

This marks a great irony: the English use ‘you’ (and to some extent ‘we’) to avoid the awkwardness of saying ‘one’ while the French use ‘on’ to avoid saying ‘nous’ all the time.