In french what does the pronoun 'on' mean?

Question

Uh this was just in a paragraph that I had to translate and it wasnt in my dictionary.....thanks

Answer 1

"on" can certainly refer to "one" and "it" or can be translated as "we" (or sometimes the royal "we") in certain contexts...but more often than not it is used to make a general statement about something and not always directly translated (actually as someone mentioned before, it comes out as the passive in English).

Example:
1. "Au Canada, on parle l'anglais et le français" - "In Canada, we speak English and French" OR "French and English are spoken in Canada."

2. "Dans ce magasin on vend toute sorte de chose" - "This store sells all sorts of things"

3. "On dit que la beauté est dans l'oeil de celui qui regarde" - "It is said that beauty is in they eye of the beholder."

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

It is the French equivalent of German "man" and English "one" as in Man sagt; Man sieht = One says; One sees," etc. In French, it is On dit and On voit. "On" derives from an earlier Latin "homo" meaning "man" or "person."

In the Vulgar Latin of Gaul (Modern France) towards the end of the Roman period, it became fashonable for people to say things like "Homo dixit" (A man / person says) and "Homo videt" (A man / person sees) rather than by the traditional Latin way, se dixit; se videt etc. This is the origin of the French word. It is also used in Catalan language of eastern Spain probably due to a French influence.

Answer 3

I could translate it by" let's"
on y va!=let's go!
on va voir=we shall see


look what i found on yahoo
~ ON ~
French Indefinite Subject Pronoun
On is the French indefinite subject pronoun, used mainly in informal French. It literally means "one," as in "One says that..." It is an informal replacement for nous, vous, ils, someone, everyone, or people in general.

On y va ! Let's go!
On est allé au cinéma hier. We went to the movies yesterday.
Alors les enfants, que veut-on faire ? OK, kids, what do you want to do?
On dit que ce resto est bon. They say that this restaurant is good.
On a trouvé mon portefeuille hier. Someone found my wallet yesterday.
On n'aime plus cette ville. People don't like this city any more.


On can also be used to replace the passive voice.

On parle français ici. French is spoken here.
On lui a dit de venir. He was told to come.
On ne dit pas ça. That isn't said. (in my opinion=not yahoo, this should be translated as "you shouldn't say things like this",or "we didn't say this")

There is a grammatical debate surrounding the usage of on; namely, on whether agreement of adjectives and past participles is required. Some say that in a sentence like On est content, the adjective should agree with the subject that is implied by on. That is,

if the implied subject is... the adjective should be
feminine (elle) feminine => contente
plural (nous or ils) plural => contents
fem. plural (nous fem. or elles) fem. plural => contentes

Likewise, some say that you should make the past participles of être verbs agree with the implied subject, such as Les filles sont tombées => On est tombées. My opinion is that on is a masculine singular pronoun and its verb conjugation and adjectives should agree with that, but it's pretty much up to you - or at least your French teacher. ;-)

Answer 4

"One" -- as in "one says", "one thinks", "one does", etc.

It is used far more in French than English and is very frequently a means of expressing the passive. The above examples could be rendered "it is said" "it is thought", "it is done" in English, but in French one would use "on".

It would be quite normal for a French speaker, when suggesting a date, to say "On va au cinéma ce soir?" (Shall we go/would you like to go to the cinema/movies this evening?")

Answer 5

The pronoun on in french means "it"

Answer 6

in the sentence ,if the verb has not subject, put "on" for subject.
for example:on fait
on prend
on dit
n'ecoute pas les on dit

Answer 7

one, as in someone or something..it. One has a great time doing this.

Answer 8

On means sur in French it can also mean above.

Another meaning can be found in switch on: here it doesn't mean sure, but allume.

Answer 9

We are ON t.v. tonight. I am sitting ON the chair. Did you come home ON the bus tonight ? ON means the same as in English, to be ON stage.

Answer 10

"They" or "someone" more or less....