On plus a verb in present tense
Key points
- On is an impersonal pronoun that doesn’t refer to any specific person but to people in general.
- On can be used among other things to mean they, you and we.
On is a subject pronoun like je or il and has a lot of different uses. It doesn’t refer to any specific person (like she does in She does the washing-up) but rather it refers to people in general. For this reason it is known as an impersonal pronoun .
Sometimes on can be translated by they in English:
Au Canada on joue au hockey sur glace
In Canada they play ice-hockey
On can also be translated by you:
Quand on est malade, on va chez le docteur
When you’re unwell, you go to the doctor
On is also used in spoken French to mean we:
Demain on va à la plage
Tomorrow we’re going to the beach