In spoken French, "on" replaces nous as a subject pronoun. I don't understand how to say something like
Do you want us to come?
or
You owe us money.
or
Tell us!
Do French speakers use nous here, even in highly informal conversation?
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Sign up to join this communityIn spoken French, "on" replaces nous as a subject pronoun. I don't understand how to say something like
Do you want us to come?
or
You owe us money.
or
Tell us!
Do French speakers use nous here, even in highly informal conversation?
“On” can only replace “nous” when it is a subject pronoun. In the first example, the corresponding French sentence has “nous”/“on” as a subject of the verb come, so “on” can be used.
Do you want us to come
From more formal to less formal.
In the two other, “us” is not subject, thus using “on” is impossible.
You owe us money.
Tell us!
Basically just remember that “on” is the equivalent of “one” (as in on doit etre gentil/one should be kind
) and “nous” corresponds to “we” (nous chantons/we sing) or “us” (dis-nous/tell us) or rarely ours (as in chez nous
).