# Why did "one" as a pronoun drop out of use? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 3, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-one-as-a-pronoun-drop-out-of-use/680396 "2014-02-03T03:23:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-one-as-a-pronoun-drop-out-of-use/680396/41 "2014-02-07T01:42:04Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > As for phrases like: “One does not simply walk into Mordor”, why not “You cannot simply walk into Mordor”? or “No one can just _walk_ into Mordor.” And so on. “One does…” sounds stuffy and archaic, especially when there are plenty of perfectly good pronouns available. “One does not…” and “No one can [does]…” are pretty much the same sentence construction, both using a form of “one”. “You” is the person or people who are being addressed. If I suggested that someone who was not me go to Mordor, and was told “You cannot simply walk into Mordor”, I would be confused by this response, since I was not planning on going to Mordor myself in the first place. “One” is general and can (but is not obligated to) include the listener, the speaker, and those absent. “Everyone”, “No one” and “Nobody” are all the same concept. You are correct, there are plenty of good pronouns that could be used in such a situation, but “you” is not one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-one-as-a-pronoun-drop-out-of-use/680396/42 "2014-02-07T09:36:05Z")
Because it’s stilted and distances rather than unites. Grammatically, you might as well be wearing a bow tie. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-one-as-a-pronoun-drop-out-of-use/680396/43 "2014-02-07T15:57:15Z")
> [@Marlonius](#): > > “One does not…” and “No one can [does]…” are pretty much the same sentence construction, both using a form of “one”. > > “You” is the person or people who are being addressed. > > If I suggested that someone who was not me go to Mordor, and was told “You cannot simply walk into Mordor”, I would be confused by this response, since I was not planning on going to Mordor myself in the first place. > > “One” is general and can (but is not obligated to) include the listener, the speaker, and those absent. “Everyone”, “No one” and “Nobody” are all the same concept. > > You are correct, there are plenty of good pronouns that could be used in such a situation, but “you” is not one of them. I’m always amused when people pretend they don’t understand a perfectly common English expression with a long history of use by all manner of people. It’s fine to say “I don’t like it,” but “I don’t understand it” is something else again. If you REALLY would be confused by “you cannot simply walk into Mordor,” and I doubt that you would be, then something was lacking in your education. I am sorry. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-one-as-a-pronoun-drop-out-of-use/680396/44 "2014-02-07T16:11:16Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I noted that Cecil is a regular user of “one” as a pronoun. > > Most obligingly, his column posted today, [What’s the meaning of “Ollie, Ollie oxen go free”?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1102/whats-the-meaning-of-ollie-ollie-oxen-go-free), June 22, 1990, provides us with an example, in which he uses “one” as a pronoun _three times_ in a single sentence: > > To be sure, in another sentence in there, he uses the generic “you” twice. That’s because Cecil is a smartass. He often wants to come off like a pompous know-it-all. The fact that he doesn’t do it consistently is a pretty good indication that it’s not the way he normally speaks. Plus that was from at least 24 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-one-as-a-pronoun-drop-out-of-use/680396/45 "2014-02-07T20:02:18Z")
> [@Becky2844](#): > > Because it’s stilted and distances rather than unites. Grammatically, you might as well be wearing a bow tie. I wish I lived in a world where the simple act of straightening one’s bow tie sent lesser beings scurrying for their rocks. As it is, even the mighty monocle has lost its power to impress. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-one-as-a-pronoun-drop-out-of-use/680396/46 "2014-02-07T20:09:49Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > [Sheldon Cooper] > Incidentally, one can get beaten up in school simply by referring to oneself as “one”. > [/Sheldon Cooper] 1st thing I thought of. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-one-as-a-pronoun-drop-out-of-use/680396/47 "2014-02-07T21:13:29Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > I’m always amused when people pretend they don’t understand a perfectly common English expression with a long history of use by all manner of people. > > It’s fine to say “I don’t like it,” but “I don’t understand it” is something else again. > If you REALLY would be confused by “you cannot simply walk into Mordor,” and I doubt that you would be, then something was lacking in your education. I am sorry. I exaggerate a bit; I’d quickly realize they meant “one” when they said “you”, but it would give me momentary pause while I interpreted the message that the speaker was actually trying to convey. This is doubly true when reading some people’s writing. One thing I find frustrating is when people learn of their own grammatical errors, malapropisms, etc., many tend to react with what boils down to essentially, “Fuck you, I know what I meant.” This is a completely foreign attitude to me, and whenever I learn that I’ve been making an error, I am glad to correct it and thank the person that pointed it out to me. It’s a little off-putting to find more of the former attitude than the latter on a website devoted to fighting ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-one-as-a-pronoun-drop-out-of-use/680396/48 "2014-02-08T04:10:09Z")
> [@Becky2844](#): > > Because it’s stilted and distances rather than unites. Grammatically, you might as well be wearing a bow tie. If we could reword this to make it scan and rhyme I think we’d have a great slogan for…er…something. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-one-as-a-pronoun-drop-out-of-use/680396.md?page=2)