Why Do Queen Elizabeth And Prince Charles Use ‘One’ To Refer To Themselves?

Some of the things that royals do are a bit perplexing for fans. For instance, many have always wondered why Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles would often use the word “one” to seemingly refer to themselves in their speeches.

Perhaps unable to contain his curiosity any longer, one fan even posted the query “Why does The Queen refer to herself as One? I’ve heard Prince Charles do it as well” on the Q&A site Quora. But the surprising thing is that even the answers given by the site’s users vary.

For Gill Bullen, using the word “one” in lieu of “I” is an indication of good manners. “She uses it as an alternative to the first person ‘I,’” Bullen wrote on Quora. “This is for the sake of good manners, and used to be normal practice among ‘good families.’”

She also said that saying “I do this” might sound vain and self-centered to the listener. Thus, some royals, including Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, would often reword the phrase to “One does this,” which isn’t as boastful sounding.

But another Quora user says that, upon careful examination of its grammatical context, Queen Elizabeth never used the word “one” to refer to herself. “Rather, she uses it entirely correctly as the impersonal pronoun,” Edward Newark explained.

But he also acknowledged that the word “one” has often been used to replace “I” but maintained that such usage is not proper. “There was a time, especially in the mid-20th century, when some of the aspirational middle-classes tried to use ‘one’, but often incorrectly in place of ‘I’ rather than the impersonal ‘You,’” Newark said. “In this form, it is both a hyper-correction and an affectation.”

Meanwhile, Tim Harding argues that it’s not just royalty who uses one when communicating. “It’s not only the Queen or Prince Charles who do this,” he said, responding to the Quora query. “It is actually correct English grammar.”

Another Quora user, Maggie Pearson, even used the word “one” in her response to prove her point. “One does this because one was taught, at school, that one should avoid using ‘I’ unless to introduce oneself at the start of a conversation, especially with someone you have just been introduced to,” she said. She also explained that if a teacher hears a student use “I” too frequently, that student might even be corrected.

Some say that language is fluid and a word’s usage might change with time. This explains why some words that never existed years ago — such as the internet or selfie — are now recognized by everyone.

The word “one” might have been viewed by some as proper while others as too formal and archaic that it’s only fit for use by royals such as Queen Elizabeth or Prince Charles.