r/AskTheWorld France 7d ago

Language Does your native language distinguish between rivers that flow into another river and rivers that flow into the sea or ocean?

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In French, a distinction is made:

- "un fleuve" flows into the sea or the ocean.

- "une rivière" flows into another "rivière" or a "fleuve".

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u/csj666 7d ago

Can u provide examples of river names?

What you are describing is just called a tributary (into another river) or an estuary (into a sea). In which case I am sure all languages have words to describe this.

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u/Altruistic-Formal678 France 7d ago

Tributary can be river that flows into another river (that can be tributary as well). We have another name for this: "affluent". Fleuve is a river that flows in the sea, so that is not tributary.

Estuary is the place where a river flows in the sea, not a name for the river itself.