Inclusive Pronouns en français: Sam Utilise Iel

Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use inclusive language when referring to your non-binary students.

I am SUPER excited to share a small book that I have been working on called “Sam Utilise Iel” (illustrated by the amazing Spencer Cook) which follows a young French immersion student who wants their class to be able to use gender inclusive language in French as well as English. It’s in black-and-white on 8x11 paper, perfect for printing out to use in your class or project onto the board.

As a non-native French speaker, I have had a several French speakers review the book, as well as those who work in the academic sphere writing about non-binary identities. Of course, if you find anything offensive, wrong, or misguided, feel free to reach out to let me know! You can also find out more about inclusive French in this blog post, or in the links included at the end of the story.

Without further ado: Happy Pride & please enjoy “Sam Utilise Iel”!

DOWNLOAD PDF: Sam Utilise Iel

Update: A big thank you to Dr. Bournot-Trites for pointing out some errors. As of 06/19/2022 the above PDF has been changed to a corrected version.


You can also check out some other resources to use in your classroom for Pride Month here.