Non-Binary Pronouns in French

A lot of our followers on Instagram have asked us about non-binary pronouns in French, but we’ve never really been sure how to answer since we don’t personally know anyone who uses those pronouns in France. 

So we asked around and did a bit of digging on the internet and found out there are a few variations. While we don’t know all of the nuances, here are some of the basics:

Subject pronouns: iel / iels 

Then you conjugate with écriture inclusives

Example: Iels sont allé.e.s au cinéma

For celle / celui / ceux  you could use celleux

*Please note that none of this has been officially adopted by the Académie Française.

But if you meet someone and you’re not sure which pronouns to use with them, you could always just ask which pronouns they prefer:

Tu préfères quel pronom ? 
Vous préférez quel pronom ?

You prefer which pronoun?
What is your preferred pronoun?

We also talk about it a little bit in this video (around 7:04).

 
 



And we found this great article that explains it much more thoroughly:
https://divergenres.org/regles-de-grammaire-neutre-et-inclusive/

 
 



We hope that helps! If you have any questions or think there’s something we could add to this blog, feel free to let us know!

Also a very special thank you to my friend James Allen who helped us write this blog:

James Allen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-allen-205b3176/


À bientôt!

-Charlie


 
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Thank you so much for reading! If you found this blog helpful and would like more help learning French, try our FREE conversational French e-Course. We also have a lot more content on Instagram and Youtube.

maia pierre