Grammar Girl here, today's topic is one versus you.

Guest writer Bonnie Trango 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, impersonal, or generic pronouns.

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 haughty.

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.

When one uses this pronoun, one creates a sense of social superiority.

One can imagine high class snobs 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, one's

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