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Groupe Francophone
Related: About this forum(Sorry, this is in English): "on" as a subject
I feel like none of my French training has prepared me for the uses of "on" as a subject. Does anyone know a good round-up of the question?
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(Sorry, this is in English): "on" as a subject (Original Post)
Recursion
Sep 2014
OP
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)1. It gets a lot of mileage.
Rabelais uses it 30 times in his Prologue de lAuteur at the beginning of Pantagruel, first published in Lyons in 1530, and at the beginning of that, his publisher uses it to advertise his establishment:
On les vend à Lyon en la maison
de Claude nourry, dict le Prince
pres nostre dame de Confort.
http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Pantagruel/%C3%89dition_Nourry,_1530
Rabelais might not be the best measure of the state of French letters, playful coiner of louche neoligisms that he was, but on seems to have landed on the langue well before him, probably in the company of y and en.
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)2. p.s. the genius of on
is that unlike say, pas or est-ce que, which are semantically hollow if not to say redundant, on shows a Latin-like economy of expression, gathering in a single nasalized vowel (in most cases, barring liaison) at least four lexically related meanings:
1 - the indefinite personal pronoun expressed in English by "one," as in, "one does what one can do";
2 - the collective indefinite noun expressed by English "people," as in "people are lisening";
3 - the 1st-person plural subject pronoun expressed by English "we," as in "we're having lunch,"
4 - the 1st-person plural imperative pronoun expressed by English "us," as in "Let us begin."
In the last case, on is used with a 3rd-person singular verb in the present, showing a refreshing thrift, as "on va," let's go, is otherwise expressed by "allons-y," let's go (there). Here are the four again with English equivalents:
1 - On fait qu'on peut faire - one does what one can do;
2 - On écoute - people are listening;
3 - On déjuene - we're having lunch;
4 - On va à la plage - let's go to the beach!
The truth is that when it comes to on, y, and en, the exact shade of meaning is typically determined by context, absent which it's hard to know whether on écoute means we listen, they listen, one listens, or let's listen.
p.s. it's much too late to go leafing through dusty tomes here so if I missed or misspelled anything please let me know, merci chérs amis!!
mylye2222
(2,992 posts)3. Re: misspelling.
On déjeune.
Merci, mes chèrs amis.
And, about "on", yes it's a subject, and a kind of a neutrality, too.
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)4. mais oui, c'est vrai . . . merci mon amie!
et merci encore!
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)5. Nice rundown here:
1 - On is a pronoun which is often used to represent people in a general sense:
2 - It also can be used to create a passive sentence. Technically, it's not a passive sentence, because on acts as the subject; however, because the perpetrator is not mentioned, it is passive in spirit:
3 - It also is used to say 'we' in an indirect way:
4 - Normally in written French, on becomes l'on when it follows et or a word ending in a vowel:
Quand on a tout, on est trop plein. -- Joseph Joubert
When you have everything, you are too full (satisfied).
2 - It also can be used to create a passive sentence. Technically, it's not a passive sentence, because on acts as the subject; however, because the perpetrator is not mentioned, it is passive in spirit:
On a bu tout le vin.
All the wine was drunk.
3 - It also is used to say 'we' in an indirect way:
On mange maintenant, ou on regarde le film d'abord ?
She we eat now, or watch the film first?
4 - Normally in written French, on becomes l'on when it follows et or a word ending in a vowel:
Quand on n'a pas ce que l'on aime, il faut aimer ce que l'on a. -- Roger de Bussy-Rabutin
When you don't have what you love, you must love what you have.
http://www.languageguide.org/french/grammar/pronouns/