Learn French: Est-ce qu'on fait un pique-nique à midi ?

In conversational French, people use on to mean "we" much more often than the formal word for we (nous). Even though on originally means "one" (as in "one does this"), in everyday speech like this sentence, it almost always means "we".

If on means "we", why is the verb fait instead of faisons?

Even though on means "we" in casual conversation, it strictly acts as a singular pronoun grammatically. It always takes the same verb form as il (he) or elle (she). So, we use fait (he/she/one does) instead of the nous form (faisons).

Why is the verb fait used here instead of a French word for "having"?

In English we say we are "having" a picnic, but in French the expression is faire un pique-nique, which literally translates to "to do a picnic" or "to make a picnic". French often uses faire for activities where English uses "to have" or "to go".

Why is it written as qu'on instead of que on?

In French, when short words like que end in an "e" and the next word begins with a vowel (like the "o" in on), the "e" is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe. This makes the phrase flow smoothly when spoken.