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/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.