Should you write “a defender”, “a defender” or “a defender” ? Don’t make the mistake again

Like sports commentators who often hesitate, you may not know how to refer to this word as feminine.

Like many professions, sport is becoming more feminine, and its own vocabulary must accompany its evolution. For some terms, there's no need to look too far: a goalkeeper becomes a goalkeeper, a striker becomes an attacker, and a midfielder remains a midfielder. But for other words, the right way of tuning is not so easy to understand. know: "coachîneur" and "defender" in particular.

For the term "coach", the Académie française has fortunately decided recently. In her Report on the feminization of professions and functions, she indicates: “the declination into -euse occurs when& ;#39;a verb corresponds to the noun (we thus have a tiler, a controller, a trainer, taken from the verbs to tile, to control, to train )". There is no doubt about it, the correct spelling is therefore "a trainer". This is also the one indicated in the Larousse and Le Robert dictionaries. It is therefore appropriate to ban, à oral as well as & writing, the use of expressions "a coach" and "a trainer".

For the term "defender" On the other hand, the debate is a little more complex. And this firstly because it is also an important title in the field of law: the Defender of Rights , Children's Defender… In 2000, when Claire Brisset was appointed Children's Defender, the debate arose regarding the spelling of this function for a woman. The spelling "défenseur" was finally é adopted over the years, to the point of no longer being questioned; as for the current Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon, whose function is spelled as such.

In the field of sport, however, the answer is less obvious. If the absence of an agreement seems a definitively ruled out option, the two women "defender" and "defender" are attested in Larousse and Le Robert. Both options are therefore valid and correct. The website of the French Football Federation uses the spelling "defenseure".

The Académie française has not commented on this precise term, but if it&#39s If we follow the rule that she herself established, we should only use the term "defender&quot ; : "the -euse declination occurs when a verb corresponds to the noun". However, the common name "defender" corresponds well à a verb ("to defend"). It's the use of this agreement, "defensive”, which is gaining momentum in recent times years among sports commentators and in the media.