this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2025
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One interesting phenomenon is native English speakers thinking their words are universal. In French, the "egg" produced by this "equipment", the ovary, is called an ovule. It does mean egg, but before fertilization. So even if a female egg cell is technically an egg, people don't call them eggs (œufs), they call them ovules. And we have much less stupid people making this kind of associations. Some languages have distinctions making it more difficult for people with no scientific background to just think they can connect some dots together.
So merely saying "an egg" isn't un oeuf.
It depends on the context. If you say "un œuf", nobody will think about an ovule, unless you're a scientist. Humans, monkeys, sheep, cows, raccoons; they make ovules and once it's fertilized, it becomes an embryo. AFAIK.
Birds and reptiles make œufs. A platypus makes œufs. Women make ovules. Nobody ever heard in French that les femmes font des œufs.
but then in french what changes is you say "a woman is someone who makes ovules" and then someone replies with a photo of a cow/sheep/monkey and say "this is a woman"
I think that the person you're replying to was making a joke. "Un œuf" sounds a bit like "enough"