Why You Should Never Say Nous in Spoken French (Spoken French Lesson!)

During French lessons in school, you might have learned that we use “Nous” for the English pronoun “We.”

“Nous jouons de la musique.” = “We play music.”

But “Nous” as a subject sounds a bit formal, or at least written. You’ll find it in novels and textbooks, elegant old-fashioned dialogues, and speeches and presentations that try to sound a bit formal.

But that’s not at all what we use in everyday spoken French. “Nous” sounds a bit too formal as a subject, so in modern French TV shows or real conversations, you’ll hear the subject: “On” instead. It’s the indefinite pronoun for “someone in general”, as I’ll talk about later. But in everyday spoken French, it’s more often the informal version of the subject “We.”

For conjugation, it works just like Il and Elle. It’s the third person of the singular.

Nous jouons de la musique. → On joue de la musique.

“On” is not incorrect French or slang. It’s simply everyday spoken French, with its own rules that are often different from the rules for written French that you might learn in textbooks or school.

It’s the kind of language that you would overhear in Paris from nearby tables in your favorite restaurant. The type of real spoken French you will also find in my longer programs like the 30-Day French Challenge, where we go over French culture and vocabulary with a new fun challenge every day, like dialogues in everyday French, pronunciation overviews, games, and quizzes to help you learn.

But let’s start practicing right away.
How would you turn “Nous” into “On” in the next sentences?

1 – Nous jouons. (= We play.) → On joue.
The first difficulty here is simply pronouncing the French nasal vowel “On”

Click here to learn more: French Pronunciation Fundamentals Part 2: nasal sounds

2 – Nous chantons dans une chorale.= (We sing in a choir.) → On chante dans une chorale.
It’s the third person singular, like Il chante. (= He sings.) or Elle chante. (= She sings.)

The conjugation with “Nous” at least tends to be quite regular: it always ends with “-ons.”, even with irregular verbs.

• Nous pouvons. = We can. (pouvoir)
• Nous allions. = We were going. (aller)
• Nous prendrons. = We will take. (prendre)

Even with irregular verbs like prendre = to take!
Nous prenons un taxi.= We’re taking a cab.

And there’s one main exception, of course: Nous sommes. = We are.

In le passé simple, it looks like this:

• Nous prîmes. = We took. (prendre)
• Nous allâmes. = We went. (aller)

But remember that nobody uses the passé simple anyway.

Click here to learn more:

• Why You Should Never Say “Je fus” in Spoken French
• How to Know Which Past Tense to Use in French: Passé composé vs imparfait vs passé simple
• How to master le passé composé when speaking French

3 – Nous prenons un taxi. = (We’re taking a cab.) → On prend un taxi.
The verb “prendre”(= to take) is one of these essential irregular verbs where you simply have to learn the conjugation, especially in the present. Conjugaison of the verb “prendre” in the present tense:

• Je prends  — > Nous prenons
• Tu prends  — >  Vous prenez
• Il / Elle / On prend  — >  Ils / Elles prennent

4 – Nous allons au restaurant. → On va au resto. (= We’re going to the restaurant.)
“Aller” (= to go) appears regular with “nous allons”, but it makes an irregular “on va” in the 3rd person.

5. Nous avons réservé. → On a réservé. (= We have a reservation.)
The verbe “avoir” is the auxiliary verb in le passé composé. Literally, it means “we booked / we have booked”.

6. Nous pensons arriver vers vingt heures. → On pense arriver vers vingt heures. (= We think we’re going to arrive around 8 pm.)
The verb “penser” = to think, is a regular verb that ends in “-er”.

7. Nous sommes prêtes. → On est prêtes. (= We’re ready.)
The verb “être” = to be, is in the present tense. The adjective “prêtes” is plural because it’s about several women — even though “on” is singular!

8. Allons-y ! → On y va! (= Let’s go!)
With “nous”, we can give orders and suggestions with the imperative form, like “Allons-y”, let’s go. And with “On”, we always give orders and suggestions in everyday French – except there’s no imperative form with “On”. Instead, we simply use the indicative present, the “normal sentence”, like :

• On y va ! = We’re going, let’s go.
• On se voit demain ? = Do we meet tomorrow? Or even Let’s meet tomorrow.
• Allez, on passe à autre chose. = OK, let’s get over this. Let’s move on to something else.

Let’s discuss how we still use “nous” in everyday spoken French. With the imperative “nous”, it would make:

• Allons-y !
• Voyons-nous demain !
• Allez, passons à autre choses