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L’on, on -- do I use it? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6117 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 1 of 6 05 October 2011 at 1:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi,
I found a sentence in my Assimil book, "Si l'on n'a pas envie d'aller au cinéma...". At first, I didn't know what "l'" was. I looked it up and I think it's called a "hiatus" and it's to keep two vocal sounds apart. I can understand that. My question is: do I always use this when there are two vocal sounds? et on ---) et l'on où on ---) où l'on is there a grammatical difference or is it simply an oral issue? Edited by Sunja on 05 October 2011 at 1:55pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5631 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 2 of 6 05 October 2011 at 2:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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"You use in the written language beside on also the forme l´on, especially after que, et, ou, où, si.
J´aimerais bien savoir si l´on part / où l´on va." (Grammatik des heutigen Französisch, Klein/Kleineidam). Yes, it is indeed not a grammatical difference, but an oral issue to avoid a hiatus. PS. Et l'on n'y peut rien. Yes, there are more examples of this intrusive l`. Edited by Cabaire on 05 October 2011 at 2:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6117 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 3 of 6 05 October 2011 at 2:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks Cabaire!
About "qu'on" and "que l'on"; I've been reading and "qu'on" can sound like "c*n". I guess I have to think quickly and not say "pendant qu'on en écrit" because it might sound like "while stupid writes it" But my Assimil book page 41: Qu'est-ce qu'on fait ce soir ? So I guess it's okay to use it in a question, but it makes it all a bit confusing. I haven't had any practice speaking et je ne veux pas me mettre les pieds dans le plat, ins Fettnäpfchen reintreten^^ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6735 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 6 05 October 2011 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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See also an earlier discussion about this in the thread Une Petite Question de Grammaire
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| Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4856 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 5 of 6 05 October 2011 at 4:01pm | IP Logged | ||
I don't think "l'on" is ever necessary. It's just sometimes more proper to use it, both in writing and verbally. I wouldn't worry about that at all. As for qu'on sounding like con (which means both an idiot or a vagina in a vulgar way), you probably will never get into trouble. Both words don't fit in the same way in terms of syntax. For your Assimil example to mean something inappropriate it would have to be "Qu'est-ce que le con fait ce soir?" "Qu'est-ce que ce con fait ce soir?" Or, "pendant que le/ce con écrit..." 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6117 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 6 of 6 05 October 2011 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | ||
Homogenik, thanks for the reassurance he-he! :)
oh my, how did I miss this?? I did a "l'on"-search but obviously I didn't check far enough. Moderators feel free to end this thread. The subject has already been well-covered. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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