On vs Nous

Eleonora C.C1Kwiziq community member

On vs Nous

In the third sentence, we are given the hint to use "on", but then marked wrong when we used it instead of "nous."

Asked 3 years ago
AurélieNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Bonjour Eleonora et Jim !

Yes indeed, the answers should have given "on" and not "nous" based on the hint. Thanks to you Eleonora, it's now been amended :)

As for Jim's question regarding pronouns with pets, here I'd say it's just like in English: most people with pets will "personify" them, and as in French we have a clear gender for nouns in general, it's even more pronounced here. Thus, animals are always referred to by "il" or "elle", most of the times regardless of their actual gender : thus, we say "elle" when talking about a mouse (la souris) and "il" about a hamster (un hamster), even if they are a male mouse and a female hamster :) 
As for "on" and "nous", we naturally use them when talking about our pets and us, and indeed for any groups of living beings.
-> Les souris et moi, nous avons / on a un arrangement.

I hope that's helpful!
Bonne journée !

Jim J.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Hi Eleonora,

I think that you should file an error report about this.

I don't understand how "on" can be used for a human-animal group.  https://www.wordreference.com/fren/on

Seems to me that "on" isn't correct for an animal-human group?

I have since the above, further researched this point and it is correct to use the third person to reference an animal. So we could say "il" (third-person singular) which suggests that to refer to oneself and a dog (me and it) could well be correct to use "nous"

I'm very much looking forward to input from a Francophone moderator on this aspect.

Jim

CécileNative French expert teacher in Kwiziq

Hi Eleonora,

I have flagged this up, thank you for bringing it to our attention.

On vs Nous

In the third sentence, we are given the hint to use "on", but then marked wrong when we used it instead of "nous."

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