Bonjour!

[c0debabe@masto.hackers.town]

Bonjour! I am learning French. I'm at the very beginning and learning pronouns. What is the most common way to denote "nonbinary" in French?

Update -- top suggestions so far are:
- iel
- ael

[alice@gts.void.dog]

@c0debabe the most common nb pronoun i have encountered so far is 'iel'. technically 'on' also counts but its less personal (mainly passive voice). 'ça' can be used in the same way as 'it'

[eramdam@social.erambert.me]

@alice @c0debabe yeah, the "annoying" part of 'iel' is that, because it's fairly new/not "official" you *will* run into people who have no idea it exists and it becomes awkward (even more than using the singular 'they' in English =_=)

[adzetko@rivals.space]

@c0debabe in terms of non-binary pronouns, we had to invent what is often considered as a neopronoun, "iel", which is a middle ground between "il" (masculine) and "'elle" (feminine). Some people prefer to use "ael", which isn't a mix between masc and fem, so it often fit better to people feeling outside of that duality.

Important thing to consider: this is purely a subjective approach I have there, it's based on the non-binary people I know and how they use their pronouns, it's absolutely not something set in stone.

[siph@meemu.org]

@c0debabe the most common non-binary pronoun is iel (combination of il and elle) and for adjective termination, you'll most often see the masculine and feminine terminations joined together with an interpunkt (point médian)

e.g. : iel est mignon•ne

this is called "écriture inclusive", you should be able to find resources looking for that. Be aware that non-binary awareness and acceptance is very low outside of queer circles and that you might get told that this is incorrect or improper.

[c0debabe@masto.hackers.town]

@eramdam I do not expect it would be easy. It's a living language we're going through. Just trying to figure out what the community is pushing for so I can help.

[beandreams@friendhole.social]

@c0debabe @onepict Fellow second-language learner perspective here. My local french immersion school most commonly uses iel as a nonbinary pronoun, but kids still have to choose masc or fem agreements for other words. "Iel est une petite enfant" or "iel est un petit enfant". I know at least one nonbinary bilingual kid who uses ul as a pronoun

[c0debabe@masto.hackers.town]

@adzetko thank you for chiming in! I do not expect it would be easy. It's a living language we're going through. Just trying to figure out what the community is pushing for so I can help.

[alice@gts.void.dog]

@eramdam @c0debabe yea. quick way to detect transphobes and misogynists and stuck up académiciens (as in, académie française).
now im at it, i think 'ael'/'æl' is also used but i cant tell if i made it up for me or if its common lol

[claire@social.sitedethib.com]

@alice @eramdam @c0debabe ael is relatively common too afaict, a little less than iel though

[eramdam@social.erambert.me]

@Claire @alice @c0debabe i never heard of ael but granted i dont interact with a lot of francophones these days outside of Fedi lmao

[tournesol@peculiar.florist]

@c0debabe everybody helped but I wanted to note how even with non-binary pronouns, the real problem is that the language is gendered so it's a conscious effort to choose a gender to conjugate your words…
so you should take into account what gender the person would prefer you to use with the pronoun