France wants to ban gender-inclusive language. "Our language is beautiful. And two pronouns are enough," said Macron, who supports the ban

"There is a neutral masculine in this language. There is no need to add periods, dashes or anything else in the middle of words to make it readable," said Emmanuel Macron in a speech at the opening of a new language centre in Villers-Cotterêts, near Paris.

French is the language that "establishes the unity of the nation", the French president went on to say. "We must allow our language to live, to draw inspiration from others, to steal words, including those from the other side of the world, to continue its evolution, but also to keep its foundations, the foundations of its grammar."

So-called écriture inclusive, or inclusive language, seeks to use French in creative ways so that when it expresses itself, it does not use the masculine form as a neutral form, but also mentions women, or is neutral with newly introduced or adapted words.

A typical tool of such language is attaching feminine endings to masculine nouns so that it is not just the masculine form that represents both men and women in the sentence. Then, if the word is plural, which in French is formed by adding the ending -s, the inclusive quatrain separates the parts of the word with a period. For example, président.e.s or sénateur.rice.s.

French gender-inclusive language also uses the neutral neuter iel instead of the masculine pronoun il (he) and the feminine elle (she), and the new neutral celleux instead of ceux (they, those) and celles (they, those).

Macron also let it be known that he was against this use of language: 'Our language is beautiful. And two pronouns are enough."

A ban in the official language

The bill, which passed the Senate by 221 votes to 82, will only come into force if the lower house of the French parliament also approves it, which on the one hand is by no means certain to happen, and on the other it is not certain when it will be voted on. It is not fixed.

However, if the law were to pass, then it would be forbidden to use gender-inclusive language in all official French communication - that is, in official texts, reports, forms, offices, contracts, birth and marriage certificates, diplomas, etc. But so far, no one has had to use it because it has been completely voluntary.

The proposal was put forward by the right-wing party Les Republicanes. It argues that it protects language from ideology and readers from the added complications of understanding written text. "Inclusive language makes French unreadable, unpronounceable and unteachable, which weakens it," said Pascale Gruny, who is among the sponsors.

The opposition in the Senate, however, takes a different view. It believes that the ideological effort is precisely to draft such a law. "This is the ninth such proposal since 2018," said Senator Yan Chantrel. "It may seem insignificant, but it is not. It's an attack by the conservative camp on the feminization of names and, by the same token, on gender equality."