英语语法：31 “One” Versus “You”

Grammar Girl here.

Today's topic is “one” versus¹ “you.” Guest-writer Bonnie Trenga is going to help us determine the best way to talk in general terms about the average person.

Bonnie says,

If you want to talk about people in general, should you say, “It isn’t good for one to be late all the time,” or “It isn’t good for you to be late all the time”? One who regularly listens to this show does tend to wonder about these things. Yes, it would be logical for you to wonder.

The short answer is that either way is grammatical and acceptable in American English. Both pronouns—“one” and “you”—are what can be called indefinite, impersonal², or generic³ pronouns (1). But as will be revealed soon, one of these pronouns is more formal than the other, and if you use it too much, you might run the risk of coming across as haughty⁴.

The Pronoun “One”

This segment of the show is going to sound rather formal because we’re going to explain how to use the pronoun “one,” which is much more formal than the pronoun “you.” One uses the pronoun “one” as an impersonal pronoun that stands for the average person or the sort of person one happens to be concerned with: someone in the same class as the speaker, for example (2). When one uses this pronoun, one creates a sense of social superiority. One can imagine high-class snobs⁵ saying to one another, “One wouldn’t want to go to that restaurant because then one would have to mix with the riff-raff.” It's not the friendliest way of speaking.

The pronoun “one” also comes with a possessive form—“one’s”—and a reflexive form—“oneself.” One could in clear conscience say or write, “One should be careful around one’s stove to avoid burning oneself,” but then one might sound ridiculous if one said or wrote that. Or one might even be considered “bookish and pedantic” (3). Despite the drawbacks of the pronoun “one,” one may occasionally find oneself using it as a substitute for “I” (4) or for being ironic⁶.

The Pronoun “You”

This brings us to the pronoun “you,” which you’ll soon see gives off a much more relaxed air and sounds much more natural than the pronoun “one.” “You” is the pronoun you should choose most often, assuming you’re not aiming to look down on everyone else. Each time you tune⁷ in to this and other Quick and Dirty Tips podcasts, you’ll probably hear the podcaster using the pronoun “you” to mean the average person or listener.

Caveats⁸

When it comes to the object case, there’s no rule that “one” is not allowed, but one guide (5) does recommend that you avoid using “one” as an object because it sounds quite bizarre. Even the strictest grammarian who wished to be formal would balk⁹ at this sentence: “When the waiter passes out crumpets to one, one should always thank him.” The “to one” part of the sentence certainly does sound strange.

Another problem that may come up when one uses “one” is that one tends to mix pronouns. One would want to avoid a sentence like “While one is reading, he should always wear his glasses.” That used to be more acceptable, but now that society is more sensitive about gender¹⁰ bias¹¹, mixing pronouns, especially in the same sentence, is not advisable (6). You should use generic pronouns consistently throughout.

That solution to the gender-bias problem leads to another possible problem. When you’re speaking or writing more than a few sentences that address the average person, you don’t want to overuse the pronoun “you” (or “one” if you are being super-formal). Your sentences will become monotonous¹² if you use the same pronoun two or three times per sentence for paragraph upon paragraph.

You may find yourself wanting to use passive voice in an effort to avoid overusing the same pronoun. For example, instead of writing “You should bring your books back to your desk,” you could get rid of one “you” by writing, “Your books should be brought back to your desk.” That might be a good strategy to use occasionally to add variety, but paragraph upon paragraph of passive writing won't endear you to your audience. It’s best to use active voice most of the time, so if you’re faced with the problem of monotonous generic pronouns, you’ll have to be creative and come up with other ways to vary your sentence structure.

Summary

So, to sum up, although it’s grammatically acceptable to use “one” as a generic pronoun, you’ll probably want to stick with “you” most of the time. You’ll have to be the judge for your particular sentence. Or if I wanted to sound formal, I’d say, one will have to be the judge of that for oneself.

 

1 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

2 impersonal   

adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的

参考例句：

• Even his children found him strangely distant and impersonal.他的孩子们也认为他跟其他人很疏远，没有人情味。
• His manner seemed rather stiff and impersonal.他的态度似乎很生硬冷淡。

3 generic   

adj.一般的，普通的，共有的

参考例句：

• I usually buy generic clothes instead of name brands.我通常买普通的衣服，不买名牌。
• The generic woman appears to have an extraordinary faculty for swallowing the individual.一般妇女在婚后似乎有特别突出的抑制个性的能力。

4 haughty   

adj.傲慢的，高傲的

参考例句：

• He gave me a haughty look and walked away.他向我摆出傲慢的表情后走开。
• They were displeased with her haughty airs.他们讨厌她高傲的派头。

5 snobs   

（谄上傲下的）势利小人( snob的名词复数 )； 自高自大者，自命不凡者

参考例句：

• She dislikes snobs intensely. 她极其厌恶势利小人。
• Most of the people who worshipped her, who read every tidbit about her in the gossip press and hung up pictures of her in their rooms, were not social snobs. 崇敬她大多数的人不会放过每一篇报导她的八卦新闻，甚至在他们的房间中悬挂黛妃的画像，这些人并非都是傲慢成性。

6 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

7 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

8 caveats   

警告

参考例句：

• I would offer a caveat for those who want to join me in the dual calling. 为防止发生误解，我想对那些想要步我后尘的人提出警告。 来自辞典例句
• As I have written before, that's quite a caveat. 正如我以前所写，那确实是个警告。 来自互联网

9 balk   

n.大方木料；v.妨碍；不愿前进或从事某事

参考例句：

• We get strong indications that his agent would balk at that request.我们得到的强烈暗示是他的经纪人会回避那个要求。
• He shored up the wall with a thick balk of wood.他用一根粗大的木头把墙撑住。

10 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

11 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

12 monotonous   

adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的

参考例句：

• She thought life in the small town was monotonous.她觉得小镇上的生活单调而乏味。
• His articles are fixed in form and monotonous in content.他的文章千篇一律，一个调调儿。