On = we, one, people

Hi Aworele,

Can you contact 'Help and Support' as this is a forum for language questions.

Merci!

Hi Gwen,

Re-post using the Help & Support feature under ‘Tools’ as this is a language forum.

I guess that the options to the multiple choice question don't necessarily have to contain all possibly correct answers. You're just supposed to choose from among those given. But I can't tell for sure because I don't know the exact question and set of answers.

Thanks Chris for taking the time to respond. My apologies for not including the set of answer choices that came with the question. I will post them when I find them :). Great day to you!

I'm not sure what you mean by where? In what kind of situation? On is more informal than nous. So in writing and formal situations, you'd use nous more often while you'd use on in casual conversations and writing (like texts and emails to a friend).

Hi Jan, 

If you take a look at the following lesson on the passive voice, using 'on' is one of the way to avoid  it...

https://kwiziq.learnfrenchwithalexa.com/revision/glossary/voice/la-voix-passive-passive-voice.

When you don't know who 'on' refers to -

On dit qu'il est parti sans payer = it is said the he left without paying

On a trouvé une carte d'identité dans le jardin = An identity card has been found in the garden

Hope this helps!

Yes, pense-t-on means "Does one think..."

It could also mean "Do we think" but the inverted form of the question, which is used primarily in a higher register of French, clashes with the more colloquial use of on meaning "we".

So, to make a question, just inflect `On dit/peut dire que Caligula était fou? 

Good point about mixed registers, thanks.

Vous as a plural pronoun adresses a specific group. You--group of people--that I'm talking to right now. On is more general and also more...all encompassing, for lack of a better word. 

To illustrate this with a sentence:

Vous ne devriez pas vous battre-- You two people that I'm talking to shouldn't fight.

On ne devrait pas se battre-- People in general shouldn't fight

I hope that helps (and makes sense).

Technically on is the equivalent on "one" meaning one hypothetical person. In English, we also conjugate this in the third person singular. "One is" not "One are" even though "One is responsible for ones own life" can very well mean "We (people) are responsible for our own lives). 

Of course on is also used in ways one cannot be used, to mean we. My guess (and this is just that, a guess) is that the plural usage of on came into use long after its conjugation in third person singular was established and people just kept saying "On est" even in cases where it means "we". It is indeed interesting to think about

Hi Liz,

Indeed you are right, the French will use 'on' for 'nous' all the time that is why teaching it is so important....

In formal written form, 'nous' will be more elegant...

Hope this helps!

so they can be interchangeably  but french speakers use ''on'' on daily basis. while ''nous'' is used mostly for very formal and written form?

In a nutshell yes....

Thanks for you reply.

When we want to say 'we', it is more elegant to use 'nous' instead of 'on', but when we want to say 'you/one/people' in formal writing , can we use 'on'? 

Hi Joan,

In written form, 'on' meaning 'nous' will be avoided ( except perhaps in informal family emails and the like).

Probably the only time you will encounter 'on' in written form (maybe in newspapers)  it will be for the general meaning of one /people/ universal you ...when you can say 'on n'a pas de nom' ...

e.g.

On dit que la pollution humaine est la cause de bien des maux = it is said that human pollution is the source of many evils.

Hope this helps!

Do you have a question, Jane?