The same rules do not appear in the English language, but in French and some other languages, all nouns are either masculine and feminine. The written endings of nouns, adjectives and verbs reflect the gender of the object or person who is speaking. When a noun involves both men and women, the default spelling is in the masculine in accordance with the long-taught rule: “Masculine always wins.” This has greatly upset French feminists, and for years they have campaigned for language reform, as especially for the French, language is very much part of the social construction of reality. And now we have the non-binary brigade and transgenders, rejecting the basic categories, or so they think.