French word of the week: on

Welcome back to our blog! With the passing of another week comes the learning of another French word. Today’s word is small in size, but huge in importance – the word on.

Have a listen to the audio clip below to hear how to pronounce it:

On is a subject pronoun. A subject pronoun performs the action of the verb, which includes words like I, he, she and they in English (je, il, elle and ils/elles in French).

However, the trouble with on is that it doesn’t have a clear and direct translation such as in the examples above. The French on can mean any of the following in English:

on we, you, someone, they, one

While this might feel a little difficult to grasp at the moment, the easiest way to think of on is that it’s the pronoun to use when the subject is somewhat general or undefined. We call these ‘indefinite pronouns’ in English. To help you remember the meaning, you can try thinking about the closest translation to on in terms of spelling, one. But while this use of one is a very high register in English, on is used all the time in everyday French.

If you’d like more information on pronouns in general, check out our Easy Learning French Grammar section on pronouns, especially our page on using il(s), elle(s) and on pronouns.

Let’s have a look at how you might use on in different situations:

On va au musée demain. We’re going to the museum tomorrow.

À trois heures du matin, on est enfin partis. At three o’clock in the morning, we finally left.

On y va ! Let’s go!

On m’a donné un billet d’entrée. Someone gave me an entry ticket.

Monsieur, on vous demande au premier étage. Someone is asking for you on the first floor, sir.

C’est ce qu’on dit. That’s what they say; So they say.

It’s worth noting too that English sometimes translates on using the passive voice (which you can find out more about on our Easy Learning French Grammar online), rather than offering a direct translation for the pronoun:

Je suis tout perdu et on m’a volé mon passeport. I’m totally lost and my passport’s been stolen.

Just as an aside, remember that using on to mean you is not the same as using tu or vous. If you’re using on, it’s talking about a general ‘you’, as in ‘anyone’, singular or plural. It’s not a ‘you’ that refers to a specific person you’re addressing:

On peut sortir par cette fenêtre au cas d’urgence. You can get out through this window in an emergency.

En haut de la tour, on voit toute la ville. At the top of the tower, you can see the whole city.

Comment dit-on « friend » en français ? How do you say “friend” in French?

That’s all for this week, but we hope to see you again soon. Keep practising what you’ve learned about this very handy little word. As they say, bon courage !

Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.