Does one refer to oneself as "one"?

[TheYearOfSmallThings]

After listening to numerous cut glass accents sharing reminiscences of Prince Philip, I am pondering use of "one".

Growing up in Ireland, it would have been seen as anglo-posh bordering on the comic. But now I am thinking about it, the French have "on" and the Germans have "man", and it does fulfil a useful role. I feel Prince Philip's cronies overuse it where "I" would suffice, but there are times where I would like to use it, but...I just don't think I could!

English people, can you say it and sound natural? Is it something that will become less and less common until it dies out?

Being far too fat for that, two refers to twoselves as 'two'.

UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername 😂

No I never refer to myself as one. Or two.

@UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername

No, I never say this.

Interesting!

I use 'one' all the time - you've made me think about how I distinguish its use from I or we.

'I think' - strong ownership of clear statement. Ready to defend my point.

'We think' - not something I'd use often, it's a bit aggressive and accusatory.

'One might think' - gentle, conceptual - expressing an opinion without wanting to prompt active opposition. Tiny bit slippery - I mean 'I and those of you who think as I do', but leaves room to slide away from full ownership if I meet strong disagreement.

So, hmm ... I'd use it to gentle a statement - but only amongst people who wouldn't mistake it for pomposity.

I could never say that without feeling ridiculous

I’d use it in the sense “one never puts the knife to the mouth” if reminding my child to stop licking gravy off his knife, but not to refer to myself.

One only does so when one is using irony.

The Danes use man too. I'm english and think of it as posh when its in english. Or academic. It wouldnt seem out of place if you heard it from Stephen Fry or Sandi Toksvig on QI explaining something.

I never use it, but I think it can be useful. I see it as more than simply "I" and more as "I" within an extended group of people. For example "one does something" to me means, " a certain group of people, myself included, do a certain thing"

Well Utterly if two self-identities as two, one supports two in that, naturally.

But I was thinking there is a use for it where one is describing something universal, and not specific to the speaker (I) or the person they are speaking to (you).

I think it's used to add weight to your personal opinion. I is more personal, one is more of a collective thought

No. I'm not an aristocrat

I’d use it in the sense “one never puts the knife to the mouth” if reminding my child to stop licking gravy off his knife, but not to refer to myself.

Yes, that's the sort of thing I mean.

Nope, unless it's specific phrases, like "one can only hope".
I do call myself by my surname, in my head or if I'm talking to myself out loud though. As in "surname, it's only a spider, it can't hurt you, wise up..."

I use it for universal - "[a person] / [one] can get sunburned in Summer", is stating a principle applicable to everyone, whereas "you can get sunburned in Summer" implies there's something very dodgily specific to you that means you should stay out of the sun...

One never uses it about oneself, because that's also making a very dodgily specific statement about oneself...

I would use it generally to mean "a person"

E.g. one might prefer to offer X and Y so that X

It depends what one wants out of this

Depending on the circumstances, one might

So it's not really a we, or a you, or an I.

Lots of people think I'm incredibly posh and I haven't really considered whether this adds to it...

It helped me when a friend said that one wouldn't say "someyou" we say "someone". One replaces you when we're not referring to a specific person.
It does grate when people replace I with one, then it's pretentious!

It does grate when people replace I with one, then it's pretentious!

In fairness to the ancient posh people, it was clearly very natural to them. "He used to come for the summer, having no home of his own, and one looked forward to it of course." I don't think anyone uses it that way now, which makes me wonder if it is dying out.

I don't like people referring to themselves as "myself" e.g. 'Tom will get back to myself about next weekend's schedule".

@UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername

Being far too fat for that, two refers to twoselves as 'two'.

😂

@TheYearOfSmallThings

It does grate when people replace I with one, then it's pretentious!

In fairness to the ancient posh people, it was clearly very natural to them. "He used to come for the summer, having no home of his own, and one looked forward to it of course." I don't think anyone uses it that way now, which makes me wonder if it is dying out.

"One looked forward to it" means that any person in the same position would look forward to it (which is, of course, an opinion and not a statement of fact!)

"I looked forward to it" means that this is something I personally liked but I acknowledge that others may not have felt the same way in the same situation.

One absolutely does.

Man in German is used in the abstract just like I would use one in English, not as an alternative to I.

I remember using man in German - "man kann tennis spielen" - which I would translate either as "one can play tennis" or "you can play tennis".

I have been known to use "one", but only when I'm speaking generally. "one might think the shops would stock that", or "one does not take the last piece without checking". Even in this case I would be very aware of what I was doing, and would phrase things differently in certain company.

Definitely wouldn't use "one" when I specifically mean "I".

I tend to use "you" rather than "one".
You would think so, wouldn't you?