The Misconception of "On" in French.

"On" is a pronoun that French speakers love using. On adore l'utiliser! See, I just did it again! What I noticed though, is that English speakers don't really seem to understand it. Most of you think of "on" simply as a more casual way of saying "nous", and you wouldn't be wrong! It can absolutely be used that way, and it often is, especially when speaking rather than writing. Almost nobody will ever say out loud "Nous allons au cinema." Instead people would say "On va au cinema." The result is, in essence, the same. It lets whoever you're talking to know that there are more than one person going to the cinema. However, that's not all that "on" is used for. In fact there are two other really common applications of "on" as a pronoun. "On" gives a certain impersonality to the subject it defines! As an example of that, if I want to say "They said it was okay," and I use "Ils m'ont dit que c'était ok", then it implies that both the speaker and the listener know who "they" are. But if I translate it to "On m'a dit que c'était ok", it becomes a lot more vague. It means that someone said it. In that case, it shifts the focus of your sentence from the subject to the action. After all, it doesn't matter who said it, as long as it has been said. The third common application derives directly from that. You can use "on" to replace "one" in English. "One does not simply walk into Mordor" becomes "On ne marche pas simplement dans le Mordor." It keeps that exact same impersonality from earlier, which is perfect for any English sentence that uses "one" as a pronoun. Now that you know that, please don't hesitate to use "on" more often! Especially when talking or writing dialogue, it will make you sound a lot more natural!