The Expat Files: Being 'one' in India.

Have you ever been somewhere and felt that you'd been magically transported back in time? A rural Tuscan village? A provincial farmer's market? Euro Disney?

On a recent trip to India, I got just such a feeling, but not because of the women bearing water jugs on their heads, the barefoot children or the snake charmers. In fact, it was something I heard over a martini at a five-star hotel. An Indian friend was talking and used the word 'one' – not to describe a number, or some unified feeling of karmic Hindu connection, but herself.

Can't one do what one wants?
To my sensitive American ears, I felt I'd traveled back to Elizabethan England. We simply don't use the third person "one" in English anymore – to refer to ourselves or to people in general – except in the most formal styles. Instead, we use the generic "you".

For example, instead of writing "One wants to make one's writing as clear as possible," we write, "You want to make your writing as clear as possible."

When in Rome...
Of course, spending time in other parts of the English-speaking world is always a great language learning experience. And being sensitive to common local usages is important – when in India, do as the Indians do. And if your native language (such as French or Danish) commonly uses a third-person generic form, it may be hard to drop the habit when switching to English.

But when writing for the international English-speaking community, it's important to keep up with the times. Using 'one' will make you sound impersonal, stuffy and remote. Using 'you' will make you sound friendly, conversational – and like yourself. 


WordNerds
Did you know..?
The Oxford English Dictionary states that the use of the word one as a pronoun in English "may have been influenced" by French 'on', which is not a number, but a reduced form of homme, "human being, person".

 

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