Don’t learn French, it’s a mess – Part 1 : “On”

Hi everyone. In French it’s like in English. We have I, you, he/she, we, you, they. That simple :

• Je mange, I eat
• Tu manges, you eat
• Il mange, he eats
• Nous mangeons, we eat
• Vous mangez, you eat
• Ils mangent, they eat

OK?

But we French invented “ON”.

“On mange” = “He (the group of us) eats”

You’ll find it useless, and it is. And we use it all the time.

What is “On”?

“On” is a way to say “we”, but in a group. From a few people, we make a group, and it becomes a “he”.

Voilà. We almost NEVER say we, in France, we say “on”, which is “The group of us”.

We in France never say “We take a break” (“Nous prenons une pause”), but “ON takes a break” (“The group of us takes a break” -> “On prend une pause”). Why? I fucking don’t know!

Think about it : you’ll learn “nous” (“we”), you’ll write it, but you’ll NEVER say it, unless you wanna sound a student.

“Do we go?” : you’ll never say “Nous y allons?”. You’ll say : “On y va?”.

I told you, it’s a mess. Give up.

 

Thanks for reading!