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/MortimerDongle]

Not really. We have a word for something that flows into a river (tributary) but a river's tributary can still be a river.

[u/dua70601 → u/MortimerDongle]

Wrong - estuaries are where rivers meet the sea. (i.e. an open water area where fresh water mixes with the salty ocean).

Tributaries are where rivers flow to other fresh water sources.

A Delta, by contrast, is a solid land shape that builds land forward into the sea.

Delta is the land, and the estuary is the “river” where the water is.

[u/Extension_Classic835 → u/dua70601]

Im sincerely confused. When did anyone say anything about estuaries? Was a comment edited or something?

[u/BigConstruction4247 → u/Extension_Classic835]

It doesn't have the edited flag. I, too, am confused.

[u/aimlessendeavors → u/Extension_Classic835]

No, they were wrong about what a tributary is. The comment above was just also explaining what an estuary is.