"on" vs "tu" and "vous" for you

Cade B.A2Kwiziq community member

"on" vs "tu" and "vous" for you

"I have been taking the writing challenge to test it out for future use with my students. I notice that when translating a 'you' statement the correct responses never include the option for using 'tu' or 'vous' and instead rely on using only 'on'. I understand the benefit of teaching the impersonal 'on' but feel that the 'tu' and 'vous' versions of the sentence should also be counted as correct. The 'on' pronoun in my understanding of spoken French is more commonly used as 'we' though it of course can be interpreted in many ways. I wonder if requiring it to be the only translation accepted for a 'you' statement might be leading the students toward a misunderstanding of the pronoun. Thanks for listening! I love the product so far."
Asked 6 years ago
AurélieNative French expert teacher in Kwiziq

Bonjour Cade !

I understand your point, and indeed these pronouns could be used to express general statements.
The reason we're asking for "on" in particular is more to do with the technical limits of our system, in order to limit the number of correct answers which could easily become "endless" :)
That's why we use hints to restrain the range of the exercises.

The pronoun "on" is very ubiquitous in spoken French, both to express "we" and general statements. I tend to write the challenges as I speak, and "on" comes very naturally to me when it comes to general statements :)

I will however keep in mind to try and use "vous" in general context as well in the future, to offer variety of uses.

I hope that's helpful!
Bonne journée ! 

"on" vs "tu" and "vous" for you

"I have been taking the writing challenge to test it out for future use with my students. I notice that when translating a 'you' statement the correct responses never include the option for using 'tu' or 'vous' and instead rely on using only 'on'. I understand the benefit of teaching the impersonal 'on' but feel that the 'tu' and 'vous' versions of the sentence should also be counted as correct. The 'on' pronoun in my understanding of spoken French is more commonly used as 'we' though it of course can be interpreted in many ways. I wonder if requiring it to be the only translation accepted for a 'you' statement might be leading the students toward a misunderstanding of the pronoun. Thanks for listening! I love the product so far."

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