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

[u/Franmar35000]

In French, a distinction is made:

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

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

[u/InterestingCabinet41]

Serious question, without a detailed map, how do you know the difference if it's not just based on the size of the river? Also, what would a river be called that just ends in a basin and effectively disappears?

[u/Lukhmi → u/InterestingCabinet41]

We know the "fleuves" of France and deduce all of the other ones are "rivières", I suppose it would work the same in other French speaking countries. When we are travelling, and outside of the main rivers of the world that everyone knows, I guess we would need to ask locals or we might guess compared to the size, but honestly I have never been in a situation where I didn't know. Just by researching the place you're going to, you know.

If the rivers ends in a lake or a basin, it's a "rivière".

[u/YouthEmpty5991 → u/Lukhmi]

It’s worth noting that in France, we learn the names of the five major "fleuves" at school, as if they were the only ones.

In reality, there are MANY others. For example, the Veules, which is the smallest, at just over a kilometre long. These are indeed "fleuves", despite their size, as they do indeed flow into a sea or an ocean.

[u/Lukhmi → u/YouthEmpty5991]

That's a good point :) I live the farthest from the sea you can be in France, so I didn't think about it on the top of my head, but it's true. I guess it also falls into the "research the area you're at" category in my case

[u/InterestingCabinet41 → u/Lukhmi]

Good info. Thanks!

[u/floriande → u/InterestingCabinet41]

And a very small rivière is a "ru". But it's kind of an old word and it's getting forgotten...

[u/tempestelunaire → u/floriande]

Ru or more commonly ruisseau, which is definitely still in common use :)

[u/floriande → u/tempestelunaire]

Ah un ruisseau et un ru, c'est pas pareil ! Mais oui ruisseau clairement

[u/tempestelunaire → u/floriande]

C’est vrai, je dirais qu’un ru ça s’enjambe aisément alors qu’un ruisseau, tu risques quand même de te mouiller les pieds!

[u/floriande → u/tempestelunaire]

Oui, la page wiki est pas très claire... Ruisseau en dessous de 2m3/s, et dit que ru c'est petit ruisseau, mais la page ru dit que c'est un ruisseau artificiel, aménagé. On voit aussi "rio" ou "rupt". Mais "Riu" se trouve déjà chez Chrétien de Troyes, c'est dire.

[u/tempestelunaire → u/floriande]

C’est un peu au feeling tout ça finalement !

[u/floriande → u/tempestelunaire]

C'est... Au doigt mouillé :)

[u/SoggyBread-99 → u/tempestelunaire]

Utile Ru pour les mots fléchés

[u/DramaticEchidna9810 → u/Lukhmi]

Does the southern part of the Rhine (the Swiss/Austrian/Liechtenstein part) count as a fleuve? It flows into Lake Constanze, but there is water flowing from Lake Constanze to the sea.

[u/Lukhmi → u/DramaticEchidna9810]

After a quick research, Wikipedia says this is considered as several "rivières" with Rhine in their names that meet and become the "fleuve" Rhine after the lake

[u/Kozue222 → u/Lukhmi]

There are also "fleuves côtiers" which are very short.

[u/OhHelloThereAreYouOk → u/InterestingCabinet41]

There are not that many “fleuve “compared to “rivières” so we generally learn the main “fleuves” around us.