@cassolotl @PierreM Ok that’s actually a little tricky. Fleuve goes to the sea/ocean, rivière goes to anything else (lake, other river). So a rivière CAN be also an affluent/tributary, but we won’t use that word to define it, only when it’s technically relevant (like « Rivière X est un affluent de fleuve Y »).

BUT we also will colloquially just call fleuve whatever is big/long and rivière the smaller ones, no matter where they end.

@Shalena @PierreM Ahhhh I see! :) Does it feel better, to have words for the different types? Like if you find out whether a river goes into the sea, you're like "oh that's better, I understand this river more now"?

@cassolotl @PierreM Nah it’s pretty useless tbh, and that’s probably why we ended up making the distinction by size rather than where it ends :p

(Well, maybe it does for people who are very into geography or whatever, but I’ve never really seen the point, personally)

@Shalena @PierreM Ha, then I bet people end up arguing about whether things are rivières or fleuves and then it all gets very silly and pedantic! :D I like getting the words right so I would totally be the pedant in this scenario.

@cassolotl @PierreM Oh I’m totally the pedant too :p