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In English it’s common to say “What are we having today?” in retail contexts instead of “What are you having today?”
And sometimes people might use “we” to mean “I” in a lighthearted, funny way to be relatable. For example, “So yeah, that’s how we’re doing right now,” to mean “Yeah, that’s how I’m doing.”
Could there be a way to say something like this in French? Are pronouns ever swapped like this in polite speech or lighthearted speech?
Yes, this exists too in French and that would be a case where the natural pronoun used would be on.
On has the ability to replace any personal pronoun in a sentence, here nous/vous:
What are we having today?
Qu'est-ce qu'on prend/choisit aujourd'hui ?
and here je/vous
So yeah, that’s how we’re doing right now.
Ben oui, on est/va comme ça maintenant.
In situations where this on tend to be avoided for not being formal enough, like in a school, a teacher might use nous when actually meaning vous:
Qu'est ce que nous allons découvrir aujourd'hui ?
