pronoun "On"

14 nov. 2017 08:26 - language-swap

Niveau intermédiaire

To someone that is not native French speaker, the pronoun “on” (which can be translated by many things) can be pretty disturbing as it is very used by French speakers.
Let's see in what occasion it is acceptable to use it.

• One or more indeterminate persons
example:
On t'appelle au téléphone = Someone is calling you on the phone
We do not know who is calling
• On = Nous (familiar language)
example:
On y va = Nous y allons
We are going
• On = les gens (the people)
example:
On roule à gauche en Irlande
• On = tout le monde (everybody)
example:
On doit aller à l'école

On is always the subject of a sentence and is conjugated at the third person singular.