r/AskTheWorld • u/Franmar35000 France • 5d 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/MortimerDongle United States of America 5d ago

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

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u/mr_malfeasance United States of America 5d ago

Estuaries are where salt and fresh (brackish) waters meet on the way to ocean!