How do you address non binary people in French.. Maybe I'm being stupid but considering 'they' has a masculine and a feminine form, I was wondering what you would use.. Would you use a different word altogether or just use 'ils' because it's the dominant pronoun.. I'd be great full if you could help.. Thanks
Eh, that's a tricky one! I'm French and it never came up in a conversation! with a quick Google search I found that "ils" would be acceptable. Il or elle just wouldn't work since they're not neutral.... lol
I don't know about native French speakers and there's a significant difference in gender terms used in other French-speaking countries - Belgium and Quebec, notably - but my teacher at school said she stuck to: elli or yel instead of il/elle, and yels instead of ils/elles. There's a mention of it here and more info: Genres Pluriels - Le langage non sexiste ou transgenre I'd be interested to hear from a native speaker though, as I've never used these pronouns so I've no idea if they're correct
Problem with those is that "ille, iel/yel" sound too gender specific. :/ Again, I'd say "ils" is your safest bet. However, as you pointed out there's different French dialects depending on where you come from. I'm French Canadian so I'm sure someone from France would have a different opinion!
