Language/French/Grammar/on-as-an-equivalent-for-English-'you'

on as an equivalent for English 'you'

on can sometimes be used where English uses 'you' and French could use vous or tu:

• Est-il vrai qu'on distingue un Américain d'un Français à cent mètres?

Is it true you can tell an American from a Frenchman at a hundred metres?

• Avec le moteur devant, on est au moins protégé

With the engine at the front you are at least protected

• Comment savoir si on est doué pour la musique si l'on n'a jamais essayé?

How do you know whether you have a talent for music if you've never tried it?

Once you've mastered this lesson, take a look at these related pages: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Time adverbs & Benefactive me, te, se, nous, vous.

Other Lessons

• Use of faire + partitive faire du, de la
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of “être”
• Quantifiers and personal pronouns
• Use of the definite article with quantities
• Adverbs ending in —ment derived from words no longer in the language
• Much More Little Less
• Past participles used as adjectives with the verb "être"
• Plurals of nouns ending in –ou
• Conditional Mood and Future Tense
• Double object constructions with no preposition
• Adverbs ending in —ment derived from the feminine form of an adjective
• Compare numbers
• Adverb—adjective compounds
• Omission of the article in compound nouns linked by à
• Location of adverbs modifying sentences