5 ms·

I personally use "We" which is not mentioned. Awkward. (In French we have "On" a sort of informal "We" and mix between first and third person without equivalent

I personally use "We" which is not mentioned. Awkward. (In French we have "On" a sort of informal "We" and mix between first and third person without equivalent in English).

Xcelerate 12y ago
I sometimes think in terms of "we", but then I start feeling like Gollum and snap myself out of it once the phrase "my precious" appears in my head.
- drcomputer 12y ago
  We is scientific and mathematical, precious.
- pilsetnieks 12y ago
  We is also the "Royal We" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_we https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_we)
sumitviii 12y ago
There is something similar in Hindi. 'Hum' means 'we' but it is used to imply your superiority. There are two types of 'you' as well. Gives out a lot of unavoidable information about your stance for that person.
stdbrouw 12y ago
"One" is actually reasonable close, e.g. "one does not simply walk into Mordor" but it certainly lacks the informality (and therefore frequency of use) that "on" has in French or the reflexive "se" in Spanish.
- JoeAltmaier 12y ago
  Sometimes formality/informality gets jumbled up and mistaken for 'frequency of use'. Just witness the informal thy,thee,thou which are now seen as formal through long lack of use.
sthreet 12y ago
Just to be completely clear on this word, would that be used to say something within a group rather than to outsiders of that group? example: "here at this group, we do things" vs "here at this group, we don't like any of you"
- ashark 12y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_personal_pronouns#On https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_personal_pronouns#On TL;DR: 1) a very close analog to (pronoun, non-numerical) "one" in English, 2) an informal stand-in for nous, that is, "we", as in on y va[1]. [1] http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=81144 http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=81144
  - sthreet 12y ago
    Thanks for the clarification, I was fairly wrong before. I'm not completely sure now, but at least i'm not wrong.
- pluma 12y ago
  This reminds me of the poor[0] management technique of avoiding I vs you ("there's no I in team") to project a feeling of ownership: e.g. "We don't do things this way." vs "You're not meant to do things this way." or "We think it's best to let you go." vs "I think it's best to let you go." [0]: Not saying that this is never appropriate, but in many cases this is just used as a tool to shift personal responsibility onto the entire team/company or present subjective opinions as something everyone agreed on. Team-building isn't something you can just define into existence.

I personally use "We" which is not mentioned. Awkward. (In French we have "On" a sort of informal "We" and mix between first and third person without equivalent in English).

Xcelerate 12y ago

I sometimes think in terms of "we", but then I start feeling like Gollum and snap myself out of it once the phrase "my precious" appears in my head.

drcomputer 12y ago
We is scientific and mathematical, precious.
pilsetnieks 12y ago
We is also the "Royal We" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_we https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_we)

sumitviii 12y ago

There is something similar in Hindi. 'Hum' means 'we' but it is used to imply your superiority. There are two types of 'you' as well. Gives out a lot of unavoidable information about your stance for that person.

stdbrouw 12y ago

"One" is actually reasonable close, e.g. "one does not simply walk into Mordor" but it certainly lacks the informality (and therefore frequency of use) that "on" has in French or the reflexive "se" in Spanish.

JoeAltmaier 12y ago
Sometimes formality/informality gets jumbled up and mistaken for 'frequency of use'. Just witness the informal thy,thee,thou which are now seen as formal through long lack of use.

sthreet 12y ago

Just to be completely clear on this word, would that be used to say something within a group rather than to outsiders of that group? example: "here at this group, we do things" vs "here at this group, we don't like any of you"

ashark 12y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_personal_pronouns#On https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_personal_pronouns#On TL;DR: 1) a very close analog to (pronoun, non-numerical) "one" in English, 2) an informal stand-in for nous, that is, "we", as in on y va[1]. [1] http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=81144 http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=81144
- sthreet 12y ago
  Thanks for the clarification, I was fairly wrong before. I'm not completely sure now, but at least i'm not wrong.
pluma 12y ago
This reminds me of the poor[0] management technique of avoiding I vs you ("there's no I in team") to project a feeling of ownership: e.g. "We don't do things this way." vs "You're not meant to do things this way." or "We think it's best to let you go." vs "I think it's best to let you go." [0]: Not saying that this is never appropriate, but in many cases this is just used as a tool to shift personal responsibility onto the entire team/company or present subjective opinions as something everyone agreed on. Team-building isn't something you can just define into existence.