Yulia Herrstein
Profesor profesional
You or one (generic pronouns)?

Which pronoun should we use in the following sentence and what is the difference?

You or One  can learn a language faster if you go to live in a country where it is spoken. Explain why.

14 de sep. de 2018 13:50
Comentarios · 2

"1You/2one can learn a language faster if 1you/2one 1go/2goes to live in a country where it is spoken...". You need to be consonant and keep to one or the other.///


That aside, ''you'' is much more informal and friendly than ''one''. That is why the queen of England always 'ones' and never speaks of herself as ''I''. Be careful, grammar books and English exams might want you/one to address yourself/oneself as ''one'', so you/one should know about it. On the street, you/one might sound very odd if you/one called yourself/oneself or others 'one'. Compare the following: anybody, somebody, nobody ... with ... anyone, someone, no one (none). To me 'one' sounds suspect and abstract, but 'body' sounds very definite. 

14 de septiembre de 2018
Either could be used, though the pronoun should match through the whole sentence. Using 'you' implies you are speaking directly to a person (or group of poeple since you in English can be either singular or plural) about their situation. Using 'One' is a more general statement about what could happen to someone, a hypothetical, for instance.
14 de septiembre de 2018