Professional Documents
Culture Documents
One, you, we and they are generic personal pronouns. We can use one, you, we and they to refer to
‘people in general’.
We can use one, you or we when we are making generalisations and not referring to any one person in
particular. When used like this, one, you and we can include the speaker or writer:
One can use the Internet without understanding cookies.(or You can use … or We can use …)
One is much more formal than you or we, and is rare in speaking:
One would have thought that agreement could be reached easily on that matter.
Conversations with one’s children are extremely predictable, especially as they hit adolescence.
They
We can use they to talk about a wide group of people, such as an authority or an institution. In such
cases, they does not refer to specific people:
We use they and them to refer back to the indefinite pronouns someone, anyone, everyone (underlined
below) when we do not know the number or gender. We also usethey and them in question tags:
If someone comes with a parcel for me, can you ask themto take it next door.
I believe anyone can do anything if they really want to enough, can’t they?
See also:
Pronouns: personal (I, me, you, him, it, they, etc.)
Pronouns: possessive (my, mine, your, yours, etc.)
Possessive ’s
One