For repeated one In formal English, once a sentence uses the indefinite pronoun
one, it must continue to use the same pronoun (or its supplementary forms ''one's
, oneself
). It is considered incorrect to replace it with another pronoun such as he
or she''. For example: •
One can glean from this whatever one may. •
If one were to look at oneself, 'one's'
impression would be... However, some speakers find this usage overly formal and stilted, and do replace repeated occurrences of
one with a personal pronoun, most commonly the
generic he: •
One can glean from this whatever he may. •
If one were to look at himself, his impression would be... Another reason for inserting a third-person pronoun in this way may sometimes be to underline that
one is not intended to be understood as referring particularly to the listener or to the speaker. A problem with the generic
he, however, is that it may not be viewed as
gender-neutral; this may sometimes be avoided by using
singular they instead, though some
purists view this as ungrammatical (particularly when the question arises of whether its reflexive form should be
themselves or
themself). Examples are also found, particularly in the spoken language, where a speaker switches mid-sentence from the use of
one to the generic
you (its informal equivalent, as described in the following section). This type of inconsistency is strongly criticized by language purists.
For one in general A common and less formal alternative to the indefinite pronoun
one is
generic you, used to mean not the listener specifically, but people in general. •
One needs to provide food for oneself and 'one's'
family. (formal) •
You need to provide food for yourself and your family. (informal if used with the meaning of the above sentence) When excluding oneself, one can use the
generic they: •
In Japan they work extremely hard, often sacrificing comfort for themselves and their families. Other techniques that can be used to avoid the use of
one, in contexts where it seems over-formal, include use of the
passive voice, pluralizing the sentence (so as to talk about "people", for example), use of other indefinite pronouns such as
someone or phrases like "a person" or "a man", and other forms of
circumlocution. Occasionally, the pronoun
one as considered here may be avoided so as to avoid ambiguity with other uses of the word
one. For example, in the sentence
If one enters two names, one will be rejected, the second
one may refer either to the person entering the names, or to one of the names. ==See also==