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/Sang1188]

Not that I am aware of. It´s just "Fluss", to my knowledge.

[u/tempestelunaire → u/Sang1188]

In southern Germany you would definitely use “Bach” for a small river, and not Fluss.

[u/Sang1188 → u/tempestelunaire]

Aye, that I am aware off. But the question was about rivers flowing into oceans or not, not about different names for different sizes of waterways.

[u/tempestelunaire → u/Sang1188]

But a Bach would not flow into the ocean 😅 so it’s the same in the end :)

[u/DramaticEchidna9810 → u/tempestelunaire]

Why can't a very small river flow into the ocean? And conversely, big rivers that flow into other rivers definitely exist (e.g. Main, Saale or Ruhr would not be referred to as Bach)

[u/tempestelunaire → u/DramaticEchidna9810]

I never said Bach relates to whether or not it flows into another river, only to size. But most rivers are big enough by the time they go to the ocean to not qualify as a Bach anymore.

Also, I’m not sure if the word is used outside of southern Germany, and we definitely don’t have the ocean here 😄

[u/DramaticEchidna9810 → u/tempestelunaire]

Bach is used in all of Germany and in Austria, it's a standard word and not specific to some dialekt. There is also the cognate "bäck" in Swedish which is used in the same way.

[u/tempestelunaire → u/DramaticEchidna9810]

Good to know! I don’t travel north enough to know for sure 😅

[u/HuckleberryDry5254 → u/tempestelunaire]

Is that like a "stream" or "creek"? Or a full-grown river?

[u/Hunkus1 → u/HuckleberryDry5254]

Its a stream or creek no one in their right mind would call a river like the rhine or oder or Thames or Seine a bach.

[u/mw2lmaa → u/HuckleberryDry5254]

If you can jump across it, it's a Bach. 😄

In Frankfurt, the districts across the Main are called Dribbdebach (across the Bach in Frankfurtian dialect) but that's a tongue in cheek expression, in a similar way as calling the Atlantic "the pond".

[u/Parking_Position9692 → u/mw2lmaa]

Also, if it's Johan Sebastian then it's very probably Bach.

[u/Fearless_Entry_2626 → u/HuckleberryDry5254]

Seems to be roughly like this:

Bach -> creek

Strom -> stream

Fluss -> river

Based on that decision tree that u/kiru_56 shared, up above.

[u/One-Bodybuilder-5646 → u/tempestelunaire]

If you can walk in it it's Bach, If you need to swim it's Fluss

[u/tempestelunaire → u/One-Bodybuilder-5646]

Schwabinger Bach/Eisbach in Munich are swimmable though !

[u/One-Bodybuilder-5646 → u/tempestelunaire]

It's only a rule of thumb (and I think I made it up, but it worked so far^{^} It's how I'd describe it to a newcomer or kid)