Inclusive writing (l’écriture inclusive) hasn’t been (yet?) approved by the Académie française but it does appear in more and more media, books, websites, even at school. If you’re learning French, especially if reading modern authentic French content, you will eventually come across texts using inclusive writing.
Inclusive writing is opposed to the traditional approach of French, where the masculine gender prevails over the feminine*, the masculine is considered neutral. Inclusive writing uses expressions or techniques that represent masculine and feminine (and sometimes also non-binary) gendered individuals.
*In French grammar, there’s a saying that goes “Le masculin l’emporte sur le féminin“, that we learn at school (at least it was the case when I was in school).
In this post, I explain the various inclusivity techniques that you might encounter in French media (not only in writing but sometimes even orally), and I take the opportunity to explain which I chose for my own media for French learners.
Hey, did you know all my articles are available in French? If you’re learning French, I strongly advise you to practice by reading the original French-only version first, and use the English version for support, if needed. You can always switch by using the language option in the top bar menu. Please note the English version is not a literal translation.
Removing gender from French words?
First, let me start with something that might be confusing for French learners, especially if their own language is not (as) gendered as French. In French, all common nouns have a gender. Think of “une table”, “un bureau”, “un divan”… This is not the problem inclusive writing is tackling.
By the way, I just love this skit by Loic Suberville about objects genders in French, click on the picture to play it:
What’s problematic with the French language is that the masculine is also the default gender of words referencing people. It’s often the case with job names, or other words describing someone’s status.
For example, “les lycéens” (high school students) is a masculine noun, but it is regularly used to talk about both feminine and masculine high schoolers (“les lycéens ET les lycéennes”).
However, some words exist to talk about people (an undefined person or a group) without giving those people a gender. To phrase it differently, the gender of those words don’t define the gender of the people they reference.
- “Les personnes choisies” (the chosen ones) -> “personnes” is a feminine word, however it references several people whose gender we don’t know (could be women and/or men and/or non-binary people). The gender of words like “personne(s)” is thus not problematic.
It’s the same for words like “les gens”, “les êtres vivants”, “les êtres humains”, “quelqu’un”…
Several approaches to French inclusive writing
There are several ways to avoid using the “neutral masculine” in French.
Parenthesis
This technique has been out there for a while, especially in job offers. As it’s forbidden to discriminate candidates based on their biological sex or their gender, recruiters had to find a way to make job descriptions explicitly open to people of all genders. The use of parenthesis became widely spread (even though it’s slowly disappearing). You can also see it in other types of textes, although less usual.
I personally dislike it as it puts female subjects into parenthesis, still implying that masculine is neutral. That’s also why it tends to disappear.
| Neutral masculine (traditional French) | With parenthesis |
|---|---|
| Recherche boulanger (temps plein) | Recherche boulanger(e) (temps plein) |
| Les demandeurs d’emploi ont vu leurs allocations diminuer suite aux décisions du gouvernement. | Les demandeurs(euses) d’emploi ont vu leurs allocations diminuer suite aux décisions du gouvernement. |
Translations : 1) Looking for a baker (full time) / 2) Job seekers saw their unemployment benefits drop following government decisions.
This technique is not really inclusive and it’s also sometimes confusing. For example, in the first example, one could think that the feminine of “boulanger” is “boulangere”, without an accent on the first -e. Then, should we write “boulanger(ère)” ? But in this case, it could be read as “boulangerère”…
Doubling terms or enumerating
In French, the enumeration of masculine and feminine terms for inclusivity purpose is referenced as “doublet” or “double inflexion”.
| Neutral masculine (traditional French) | With doubling |
|---|---|
| Les Français adorent râler. | Les Français et Françaises adorent râler. |
| Les employés reçoivent des croissants une fois par mois. | Les employées et employés reçoivent des croissants une fois par mois. |
| Les professeurs sont déçus. | Les professeurs et professeures sont déçus et déçues. |
| Les nouveaux ministres ont fait passer des lois rapidement. | Les nouvelles et nouveaux ministres ont fait passer des lois rapidement. |
| Les juges restent longtemps assis. Ils doivent faire des exercices pour soulager leur dos. | Les juges restent longtemps assis. Ils et elles doivent faire des exercices pour soulager leur dos. |
| Un fonctionnaire a droit à une meilleure pension. | Un ou une fonctionnaire a droit à une meilleure pension. |
| Il faut poser la question à votre conseiller attitré. | Il faut poser la question à votre conseiller attitré ou conseillère attitrée. |
Translations : 1) French people enjoy complaining. / 2) Employees receive croissants once a month. / 3) Teachers are disappointed. / 4) The new ministers passed laws quickly. / 5) Juges stay seated for a very long time. They need to exercise to relieve their back. / 6) A civil servant is entitled to a better pension. / 7) You have to ask your personal advisor.
Those are only a few examples of ways this technique is commonly used. There is a very detailed page about this on the website of the Canadian Government, language portal.
The advantage of this technique is that French learners can see both the masculine and the feminine variants of a word, and how it influences the sentence.
The downside is that it makes sentences a bit intricate and it’s not always nice, from a stylistic perspective, especially when there are many adjectives and/or past participles.
Collective words
Sentences can be modified by replacing strongly gendered nouns (if you remember the example in the introduction, “les lycéens”) by collective words, including people of any gender (“les personnes”, “les gens”…).
Here are a few examples of collective words that are not gender-defining: la population, les gens, le peuple, le collectif, le groupe, le lectorat, l’équipe, les personnes, une partie des (…), quelqu’un…
| Neutral masculine (traditional French) | With collective words |
|---|---|
| Les Français ont voté hier. | Le peuple français a voté hier. |
| Salut les gars ! | Salut tout le monde ! |
| Les lectrices attendent ce nouveau roman d’amour avec impatiente. | Le lectorat attend ce nouveau roman d’amour avec impatiente. |
Translations: 1) French people voted yesterday -> The French people voted yesterday. / 2) Hi guys! -> Hi everybody! / 3) The female readers are eagerly awaiting this romance novel. -> Readers are eagerly awaiting this romance novel.
It’s an easy way to include everyone, which doesn’t change the complexity of the sentence. However, it cannot be used to often: from a stylistic perspective, it’s not great to use the same word again and again.
Epicene nouns
Epicene nouns are alternatives to explicitly gendered nouns. They’re written and pronounced the same way, whether the subject is feminine or masculine. A bit similar to collective nouns, using them allows to rephrase a sentence in a neutral way.
| Neutral masculine (traditional French) | With epicene nouns |
|---|---|
| Les lycéens commencent leur session d’examens aujourd’hui. | Les élèves du lycée commencent leur session d’examens aujourd’hui. |
| Les amateurs de science-fiction vont s’arracher ce nouveau jeu vidéo. | Les adeptes de science-fiction vont s’arracher ce nouveau jeu vidéo. |
| Les conducteurs sont bloqués dans les bouchons. | Les automobilistes sont bloqués dans les bouchons. |
| Nous recherchons des conseils d’expert sur le sujet ! | Nous recherchons des conseils de spécialiste sur le sujet ! |
| Nous cherchons quelqu’un de franc. | Nous cherchons quelqu’un d’honnête. |
Translations: 1) High school students begin their exam session today. / 2) Science-fiction aficionados will be snapping up this new video game. / 3) Drivers are stuck in traffic. / 4) We’re looking for expert advice on the topic! / 5) We’re looking for someone frank / honest.
Let’s analyse the first example: “lycéen” is a masculine gendered word (since it has a feminine version: “lycéenne”). On the other hand, “élève” (pupil) is the word used either for female or male subjects (“un élève” or “une élève”). “Les élèves” references students regardless of their gender.
This technique is convenient because it doesn’t make the sentence cluttered, but as collective nouns, it shouldn’t be used to heavily to avoid repetitions. Also, there aren’t epicene alternatives to all existing nouns in the French language, so it’s not possible to rely solely on it. Sometimes, epicene alternatives might have a slightly different meaning. For example, is “franc / franche” (frank) exactly the same as “honnête” (honest)?
It’s also worth noting that it works best when the sentence is in the plural form. Let’s take another example: “architecte” (architect) is an epicene word (“une architecte” or “un architect”), but in a sentence using the undefined article “un / une”, it becomes explicitly gendered. In such case, it’s necessary to combine this epicene word with another inclusive technique.
- Je cherche un architecte (masculine)
- Je cherche un ou une architecte (inclusive)
Neologisms, contractions or portmanteau words
Some words regularly appear in a new form combining the masculine and feminine forms into a single word. The most seen are “iel” (contraction of “il” and “elle”) and “toustes” (contraction of “tous” and “toutes”). Other similar portmanteau words appear, like “voyageureuse” (traveler, contraction of “voyageuse” and “voyageur”).
The advantage of this technique is that it’s easily transposed orally: those new words can be read just like they’re written. However, this technique is not officially recognized, those new words don’t appear in the dictionary. They’re used by independent and militant media.
The middle point writing
The middle point, or “point médian” in French (·), is different from the final point (.). You can type it by holding the “alt” key on your keyboard and typing “250”. There are other similar but less used forms, like capital E, reversed ə, and other lazy ones like using the final point (.), a dash (-) or a slash (/).
| Neutral masculine (traditional French) | With middle point |
|---|---|
| Les lycéens reprendront les cours demain. | Les lycéen·nes reprendront les cours demain. |
| Nous cherchons un assistant personnel. | Nous cherchons un·e assistant·e personnel·le. |
Translations: 1) High school students will go back to school tomorrow. / 2) We’re looking for a personal assistant.
And here are some examples with the alternative punctuation marks or symbols:
- Les premiers intéressés sont les avocats -> Les premierEs intéresséEs sont les avocatEs
- C’est plus facile de se dire qu’il y a des gentils et des méchants. -> C’est plus facile de se dire qu’il y a des gentilləs et des méchantəs. (source)
- Nous recherchons un assistant dentaire -> Nous recherchons un.e assistant.e dentaire
- Les étudiants ne sont pas pressés de retourner à l’école -> Les étudiant-es ne sont pas pressé-es de retourner à l’école
Translations: 1) The first who are concerned are lawyers. / 2) It’s easier to think there are good and bad people. / 3) We’re looking for a dental assistant. / 4) Students are not eager to go back to school.
This way of writing doesn’t clutter the sentence, compared with words doubling for example, but can sometimes be confusing, especially because there aren’t official rules.
For example, some will write “copainEs”, but the feminine of “copain” is “copine”. Maybe writing “copain-ine” is clearer, but not totally, especially for someone learning the language.
Alternating feminine and masculine
Alternating means using once the “neutral masculine”, then the “neutral feminine”, and so on, making sure the number of occurrences in balanced.
| Neutral masculine (traditional French) | Alternating |
|---|---|
| Dans notre hôpital, vous bénéficiez des conseils professionnels de nos chirurgiens, docteurs, assistants personnels et infirmiers. | Dans notre hôpital, vous bénéficiez des conseils professionnels de nos chirurgiennes, docteurs, assistantes personnelles et infirmiers. |
| Les boulangers et pâtissiers de nos ateliers vont régaler vos papilles ! | Les boulangères et pâtissiers de nos ateliers vont régaler vos papilles ! |
Translations: 1) At our hospital, you benefit from the professional advice from our surgeons, doctors, personal advisors and nurses. / 2) Bakers and pastry chefs in our workshops will delight your tastebuds.
Alternating genders in enumerations poses two big problems:
- It’s very confusing for the reader: in the last example, does it mean all bakers are female and all pastry chefs are male?
- It requires extra attention when using it, because choosing a feminine gender for jobs where you traditionally expect women would only reinforce the cliché. Therefore, one should specifically “assign” genders where they’re less expected.
In conclusion, it’s difficult both for the reader and the writer.
Rephrasing
Sometimes, it’s possible to rephrase sentences to remove the gendered notion from human subjects.
| Gendered | Neutral rephrasing |
|---|---|
| Tout élève doit se présenter d’abord au secrétariat | Chaque élève doit se présenter d’abord au secrétariat |
| Bonjour à tous | Bonjour tout le monde |
| Déjà client ? Connectez-vous ! | Vous avez déjà un compte ? Connectez-vous ! |
Translations: 1) All students / Each student must first report to the office. / 2) Hi all / Hello everybody. / 3) Already a customer ? / Already have an account ? Log in!
The language portal of the Government of Canada offers many ideas to rephrase sentences in a gender neutral way.
The inclusive writing techniques I chose for my French comprehensible input media
On this website, my Substack newsletter in French comprehensible input and my books for French leaners, I don’t use the middle point or other techniques that can be confusing (although I do use them on my other media meant for native speakers).
In my books in accessible French, I combine two techniques:
- Doubling words in the main story, because it’s a good way to show readers both the masculine and feminine versions of nouns, adjectives, past participles…
- In additional examples, I alternate sentences with a feminine then a masculine subject (from one sentence to another, not in the same sentence).
Here and on my Substack, I use collective and epicene words, as well as doubling. I really rarely use middle point, and if I do I explicitly explain it.
What about inclusion when speaking French?
Some techniques work perfectly orally, like doubling, collective and epicene words, and neologisms. However, when speaking, we naturally tend to go faster than when writing, and we usually don’t practice in advance before a conversation (at least, we cannot foresee the whole script). Therefore, inclusive language is less used when discussing orally.
On the other hand, you might hear it in scripted podcasts and videos. For example, many podcasters who care for inclusive language start their episodes with the greeting “Bonjour chèrEs auditeurices”. The final “-e” of “chèrE” (dear, combination of “chers” and “chères”) is silent, which makes it easy to pronounce, and the portmanteau word “auditeurices” (listeners, combination of “auditeurs” and “auditrices”) can be read as-is.
Here’s just one of many podcast episodes where you can here this inclusive greeting (0:43).
Past participles or adjectives agreement with both masculine and feminine subjects
Finally, I take this opportunity to review a French grammatical rule that can be confusing: what gender agreement to choose for past participles or adjectives when there are several subjects of feminine and masculine genders?
Basic rule and inclusive alternatives
Following the traditional rule, we use the masculine when there are several nouns with both masculine and feminine genders, whether the subjects are objects or people.
- Le manteau et la robe que j’ai achetés. (For clarity, the French dictionary Le Robert advises to put a masculine noun at the end of the enumeration, although it’s more a of stylistic advice: La robe et le manteau que j’ai achetés.)
- Bienvenue aux nouveaux employés et employées !
Translations: 1) The coat and the dress I bought. / 2) Welcome to new employees!
When writing about an alive subject, we can modify the sentence to make it more inclusive:
- Bienvenue aux nouveaux employés et nouvelles employées ! (doubling)
- Bienvenue aux personnes qui rejoignent l’entreprise ! (collective word)
- Bienvenue aux nouveaux·elles employé·es ! (middle point)
- Bienvenue à nos nouveaux et nouvelles collègues (epicene word and doubled adjective)
Translations: 1) Welcome to new employees. / 2) Welcome to people joining the company (to new joiners). / 3) Welcome to new employees. / 4) Welcome to our new colleagues.
In a professional environment, it’s not unusual to see words in English in such sentences, which also solves the problem since most English words are not gendered.
- Bienvenue à nos newjoiners !
You can encounter alternative agreements:
Proximity agreement
In this case, the adjective or past participle takes the gender of the closest noun it qualifies. It is grammatically correct, but many people will regard it as a mistake (even some French teachers, if they stick to the most widespread rule explained just above):
It’s also possible to use the proximity agreement: when an adjective refers to several nouns with different genders, the adjective takes the gender of the last of those nouns:
les étudiants et les étudiantes inscrites au cours (translation: the students registered for this class)
Armez-vous d’un courage et d’une foi nouvelle.(Racine) (translation: arm yourself with new courage and faith)
This agreement, which was usual until the xviith century, is now recommended by defenders of gender equality who think that the rule “masculine prevails over feminine” conveys the unconscious idea that men are superior to women. Nowadays, the proximity agreement is getting a renewed interest and several teachers claimed they wanted to teach it to their students. However, it’s still currently rarely used and is often regarded as a mistake.
One can also use the gender of the closest word in the following cases:
when subjects form a gradation: Il a un ressentiment, une haine profonde envers ses anciens amis. (translation: He has a deep resentment, a hatred, towards his former friends.)
when subjects are synonyms or almost synonyms: Cet objet a un aspect, une apparence étrange. (translation: This object as a weird look, appearance.)
Le Robert, “Accord de l’adjectif qualificatif avec plusieurs noms juxtaposés ou coordonnés par et” (my own translation)
Majority agreement
In this case, the gender of the adjective is based on the amount of feminine subjects vs masculine ones. If there are more feminine subjects, then the adjective will be feminine. However, this is not officially recognized, and therefore this is a grammatical mistake. Some writers decide to use it as a figure of style or militant act though.
- Elise, Justine, Tom et Julie se sont bien amusées. (Not correct, but can be encountered in some media)
Translation: Elise, Justine, Tom et Julie had a lot of fun.
Did you come across other forms of French inclusive language? Do you find this confusing? Does it make learning French more difficult?
