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

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