Language/French/Grammar/on-as-an-equivalent-for-English-'you'
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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[edit | edit source]
- 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