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French: the use of "l’on"

  Tags: French
 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages Post Reply
Mnorman80
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 Message 1 of 5
25 December 2005 at 11:56am | IP Logged 
My question is what the french expression "l'on" means, which I have
found in many texts that I have read in French. Is it the same translation
as the third person subject "on", which in English means "one"? I have
looked in my textbook of French grammar (which is in swedish) and have
not found any answer and also did some searches on Google. It seems to
be similar in the way you use a direct pronoun object (COD in
French), but that kind of pronoun is something you only place behind a
verb, not a subject?
Example from a sentence from the editorial in Paris Match:

"En France, l'amour du débat est tel que l'on débat en même temps de
l'objet du débat..."

Thanks for future replies!

/Mattias
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Raistlin Majere
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 Message 2 of 5
25 December 2005 at 2:25pm | IP Logged 
I believe that you're right, and that "on" or "l'on" is equivalent to Swedish "man".

Edited by Raistlin Majere on 25 December 2005 at 2:26pm

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victor
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 Message 3 of 5
25 December 2005 at 3:06pm | IP Logged 
Mattias, welcome to the forum!

I've been bothered by this question before until I saw this page:

http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-lon.htm

It is only for euphony and I don't see it used often except on newspapers and on more formal television shows. It has absolutely nothing to do with the direct object.
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Mnorman80
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 Message 4 of 5
25 December 2005 at 5:24pm | IP Logged 
Thanks very much for the link at the website About, it gave me a good answer on my problem. And about the translation, yes, "on" is "man" in Swedish.
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 Message 5 of 5
26 December 2005 at 7:45am | IP Logged 
Welcome to the forum Mnorman80!

I believe the `l` in l`on is just there to mark a correct pronunciation. It does not sound so nice to say `que on` so we rather say `que l`on` which flows better. But as far as I can understand (and French is my native language) it does not change anything to the meaning of `on`.


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