Gender-inclusive French: A crash course
- syoung679
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Amanda Culver (they/them/iel), teacher, Sooke
The French language is heavily gendered: we have gendered nouns, masculine and feminine adjective agreements, and vocabulary with roots in misogyny. Within this clearly defined gender binary, there is a prevalence of masculine over feminine. We see this when a group of 1,000 women (elles) suddenly becomes the masculine ils when one man enters the group. Similarly, we’ve seen career vocabulary reserved for men: la présidente was once the wife of a president and not a female president. It took until 2019 for l’Académie Française to consider language feminization a possibility. (L’Académie Française is the council set up to promote and protect the French language.) When changes to the language are presented, they determine what is permissible and what is not. Under their “power,” the masculine has been declared “gender neutral” and inclusive writing undermines the democracy of the language. Despite what any governing body decides, gender-diverse people exist and have always existed. Languages evolve and change, regardless of what a council says. So, how do we make space for gender diversity within a language defined by two genders?
As a French immersion teacher and someone who lives outside the gender binary, I’m excited to share my learning with you, recognizing that I’m still learning and language is still changing. No matter your stage of language-learning and no matter the gender identity or gender expression of the students in your room or colleagues down the hall, you have permission to play with the language. The following sections outline some ways you can begin to make your French more gender inclusive.
Les épicènes
This is an easy place to start. Using epicenes is an inclusive practice because these words are written the same, regardless of gender. You already know some!
Ex, enfant, personne, parent, rapide, calme
As-tu vu la personne?
Je vois ton adulte!
Tu es fantastique!
Alternating between masculine and feminine
How a person might indicate this: J’utilise les accords au masculin et féminin. They might ask you to use both equally or might have a preference for one more than the other. You can ask!
A great time to practise alternating between the two is when you are talking to your students. How this may sound:
Amanda est gentil.
Iel est heureuse et fort.
Les élèves sont intelligentes et gentils.
La féminisation
La féminisation pushes back on the idea that “masculine is gender neutral.” What is growing in popularity is the use of midpoints (·) in writing; they are used between masculine and feminine endings.
Ex, étudiant·e, gentil·le, allé·e, heureux·euse
Man froeur est allé·e à l’école.
to type le point médian ·
- on a Mac use option + shift + 9
- on Windows use alt + 1083.
Note: In addition to median points, people use les traits (-), les points (.), and les majuscules. Here, parentheses are avoided because it implies a lack of importance or an afterthought.
La féminisation par doublet
Another form of féminisation is using les doublets, which are a combination of masculine and feminine.
Ex, Le joueur - La joueuse - Lia jouereuse
Ex, frère - soeur - froeur
Ex, mon - ma - man
Man froeur est allé·e à l’école.
Le genre neutre (selon alpheratz.fr)
How a person might indicate this: J’utilise les accords au genre neutre. When writing, le genre neutre is quite evident. When speaking, however, it may sound masculine, as “x” and “z” endings are not pronounced. Here are some examples:
certain - certaine - certan
ami - amie - amix
principal - principale - principalx
Français - Française - Françaix
nouveau - nouvelle - nouval
heureux - heureuse - heureuz
le - la - lu
un - une - an
lui - elle - al
tous - toute - toutx
Amanda est gentilx.
Iel est heureuz et forx.
Le genre inclusif (selon divergenres.org)
According to divergenres.org, le genre neutre is used by non-binary folx and uses “s” and “m,” while le genre inclusif is meant to include all gender identities and uses “x,” but also uses la féminisation par doublet.
Ex, directeur (masc)
directrice (fém)
directeus (neutre)
directeureuse (inclusif).
More information
To learn more about gender-inclusive French, visit divergenres.org.
The “Guide de grammaire neutre et inclusive” is more widely shared within Canada and includes additional examples from la nouvelle grammaire (articles, déterminants, prépositions, adjectifs).
alpheratz.fr—This guide to gender-neutral French includes pronunciation notes.
noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca—This website has lots of resources that give hope that change is coming!
Summit—A poem
This poem was co-created by participants in the BCTF 2024 2SLGBTQIA+ Summit. Participants wrote about their experiences at the summit, highlighted some key words/phrases from their writing, and then wove their words together to create this poem.
Summit
Time lost
Wondering if queer enough
Has lovely with folk
Slowly community-built
The most who understand,
Re-energized
Level
Definitions
Artistic space
To have intersectional queer joy
A Friday, come serious, flowed freely.
Out.
Playful.
You are queer enough.