French: Terms for unicycle / unicycling

French speakers, what terms do you use for unicycle and unicycling?

I thought “monocycle” was the correct word for unicycle, but a native French speaker (who knows nothing about unicycles) told me, “un vélo avec une roue” is what she would say.

Would unicycling be “faire du monocycle” or “faire du vélo avec une roue” or something else?

Out of respect for both the French language and unicycling I put the question to you.

Merci !

P.S. I’m a native English speaker learning French (niveau A2).

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It’s effectively a “monocycle”. “vélo avec une roue” would be translated as “a bike with one wheel”. So “unicycling” would be “faire du monocycle”. :slight_smile:

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Thanx @Maxence I thought the correct french term for unicycle was „velo avec une roue perdue“ :grinning:

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I had the same experience with a German guy who didn’t know his own word for unicycle. “Einrad!” I said (which I learned here). But he said, no, that didn’t sound familiar.

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She’s clearly lying to you, she’s not french. :smile:
Having said that, I’m surprised by how many people don’t know the proper word “monocycle” here. I’ve heard countless times from passers-by: “Check this out kids, a monoroue !”. Nope sir, it’s not called a uni-wheel

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I have noted that this confusion is generally due to our big wheels: a classic 20" or 24" is identified as a circus object thus people tend to know the correct word - “monocycle”. However, a bigger and larger wheel - typically a mountain unicycle - is not recognized as a circus object so people don’t relate it to this famous circus object. :clown_face:

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As far as I know, “monocycle” is correct. It’s also true that many are unaware of this term because it’s not in common use. Many people end up using the English word unicycle because they don’t know the correct term, and with the Internet spreading English around the world, more people know the English term. Unicycling would be “faire du monocycle”. “Un vélo avec une roue” is basically “a one-wheeled bike”, and “velo avec une roue perdue” would be “bike with one lost wheel” - amusing, but incorrect.

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They’re clearly lying to you, they’re not German. :smile:

But then, I’ve also met people who asked if that was a unicycle (in German: ist das ein Einrad?) - sometimes I wonder how hard life must be for people who have troubles counting up to one

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