Greek to Canadian French: keep the same group behind we and on
A singular-looking French construction can still refer to the group
A Greek group message can identify its participants through the verb as well as through names and pronouns. The Greek UD description records person and number on finite verbs. In Canadian French, a translation using on can refer to a defined group even though its construction does not look like a first-person plural verb. Establish who the source includes before treating that difference as a lost participant.
The Office québécois de la langue française distinguishes indefinite on from on referring to known people. Its examples include a speaker and a friend, and another example concerns women who separate during a journey. Agreement on descriptive material reflects the known referents. These examples do not make on the only or preferred rendering of every Greek first-person plural.
For an original Greek travel update from two friends, check whether the target still reports their shared experience. Do not infer that only one friend travelled merely because the French pronoun is on. Equally, do not accept a reference to people generally when the Greek message concerns the sender and a specific companion.
An adjective ending and a verb ending need separate interpretation
The Greek documentation also notes adjective agreement in both noun-modifying and predicate positions. In a source statement describing a group’s condition, its grammatical information helps identify the people concerned. The French translation must preserve that reference through the construction it actually uses rather than copy the appearance of the Greek ending.
OQLF illustrates feminine plural agreement in a known-group example with séparées and masculine plural agreement with disputés in another example. Those short forms demonstrate agreement with the intended people; they are not interchangeable labels for the same group. The surrounding context determines the relevant agreement.
Imagine a Greek update from several women who arrived together and then took different routes. If the target changes the referent to an unspecified traveller, it loses the group. If it retains the group but associates a later description with a different set of people, the narrative becomes unclear even though the journey vocabulary remains accurate.
For a message being sent formally to an organiser, register matters too. OQLF recommends the corresponding personal pronoun, commonly nous, in a more formal style where known people are intended. A conversational translation and a formal report can therefore make different pronoun choices without changing who participated.
Do not let on change its referent halfway through the account
OQLF specifically cautions against making on refer to different people in the same context. This is useful when a Greek account moves between what the sender’s group did and what another organisation did. A translation should keep that change of actor visible.
Consider an original travel complaint: the sender’s party reached the hotel, but hotel staff had changed the booking. Repeated on could leave a reader unsure whether the travellers or staff changed it. Check each event separately and preserve any source noun phrase that identifies the staff. A fluent short version is not faithful if it reallocates the booking change.
Read the translated message as a sequence of responsibilities: who travelled, who separated and who altered an arrangement. Pronouns can shorten an account once their reference is established. They should not force the reader to reconstruct a different group for every sentence. This check keeps the Greek participants identifiable while allowing Canadian French to choose an appropriate conversational or formal construction.
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