The result obtained through the elections, which granted victory to the first woman who will preside over the nation for the next four years, undoubtedly, leads us to an extremely pertinent question: the position occupied by her will be that of president or president?
During the electoral campaign, the PT (Workers' Party) opted for the "presidential" form, a strategy whose intent was to only to reinforce the fact that Dilma, as elected, would make something previously conceived as unprecedented in the country's history, effectively materialized.
Starting from this premise, it is worth mentioning the controversies arising from the use of both terms, given the divergences made by renowned grammarians. In order to represent them, we mention Celso Cunha, who points out that the female (regarding the president) still presents itself with a restricted course in the language, in the case of Brazil; Evanildo Bechara, as well as Luís Antônio Sacconi, who admit that both forms are correct; João Ribeiro emphasizes that "the use of forming females in “enta” of names in “ent”, such as president, admiral, infanta, has not been widespread". Not forgetting the words of Domingos Paschoal Cegalla, revealing that “president” is the correct and dictionary form, alongside president.
In line with such statements, it is important to remember that the recurrence referred to by the term "president" is due to the fact that through the postulates There is a common form, both for the masculine and the feminine gender, the so-called common nouns of two genders, such as: the artist - the artist; the youth - the youth; the student - the student. We find, therefore, that the differentiation takes place through the use of only one term that determines it, that is, the articles (o/a). However, there are words that admit both forms, as is the case of “the boss - the boss or even the boss”. As is the case with "the relative - the relative as well as the relative", hence the president.
Such elucidations lead us to believe that beside the form represented by the term "president" there is also that constituted by "president" who, according to the Orthographic Vocabulary of the Portuguese Language (VOLP), is characterized as a feminine noun. Therefore conceived as officially permitted by all users.
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/dilma-rousseffpresidente-ou-presidenta-brasil.htm