Thom 🌈

[cold osprey]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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[grand tendon]

Yup, you're exactly right

« on »'s main meaning is 'one' or a general something. It's meaning as 'we' is an extended meaning

That's why the passive also uses « on » :
« On frappe à la porte (One knocks on the door) »

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/subject-pronoun-on/

[south helm]

It's mostly just that English uses a bunch of different words to express this idea, while french just uses "on" for a wide variety of things. And outside of formal language, "on" has all but replaced "nous"

"on" can be translated and "you", "we", "one", "they", the passive, "someone", etc.

[grand tendon]

(as a subject pronoun, better to clarify that)

[south helm]

Yeah, but you can't use "on" as anything but a subject pronoun

[grand tendon]

yeah but « nous » is used as a tonic and an object pronoun so it might lead people to think that « on » replaces those as well

[south helm]

Well it depends

"on s'est dit" and "on nous a dit" are entirely different things

[grand tendon]

sure but outside of that it still applies

« *On, on voulait que ça s'arrête » wouldn't make sense

[south helm]

Yeah, on can only be a subject pronoun

[barren bobcat]

nous, on dit que...

ils nous ont dit que...

don't get them twisted

[vale mesa]

Dans ces deux phrases "on" est un sujet, c'est ça qu'il dit