Elle, Elles, Todes: My Thoughts on Inclusive Language in Spanish
Murphy Scott, University Relations Director at Expanish Buenos Aires, looks at how inclusive language in Spanish has evolved over the years, why this matters for everyone in international education, and what happens next.
"Hola a todos y todas," Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, former President of Argentina, would say at the start of most of her public speeches. Not "todos," the masculine plural that in Spanish is used to refer to mixed-gender groups, even if there are 100 women and 1 man.
To English-only speakers, this might sound like just semantics, but for Argentines it was a strong political statement. Kirchner made a point to name both genders when speaking to the Argentine public, explicitly sending a message: she was choosing to make her language more inclusive.
Inclusive language has been building across the Spanish-speaking world since the 1990s, and Kirchner's use of it in 2007 put a spotlight on the issue in Argentina specifically. And if you’ve ever sat in a high school Spanish class wondering why a mesa (table) is feminine and a puente (bridge) is masculine, you might find this satisfying.
From "Todos y Todas" to "Todes"
Kirchner’s "todos y todas" was an important step, but it had limitations:
It only acknowledged two genders.
It is cumbersome to say out loud.
There are still other gendered words in Spanish.
The next step of inclusive language took a different approach: replace the gendered “-o” and “-a” endings with an @ to symbolize the two genders, especially since it visually combined the A and O. This is not ideal, as the @ symbol cannot be said out loud and it still fuses just the male and female genders. Afterward came the “-x” ending (as in Latinx), which was a better alternative as it stood for any and all genders, but it has the same pronunciation issue in Spanish. Both of these stayed mainly confined to texts rather than verbal communication.
Then came the current options, the neutral -e ending. This way, "todos" and "todas" become "todes." "Nosotros" and "nosotras" become "nosotres." "Bienvenidos" and "bienvenidas" become "bienvenides." "El niño" and "la niña" become "le niñe." This provides an option that is pronounceable and encompasses all genders.
This change isn’t just a political statement but rather a way of modifying Spanish. Those who use inclusive language in Spanish use this consistently across articles, nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, all following the same rule. The result is a version of Spanish that is gender-neutral in a way that "todos y todas" could never achieve.
The movement is especially visible to me in Argentina, where it is common in universities, activist communities, and among LGBTQ+ folk. I hear locals using this type of language occasionally, and some even use it 100% of the time. As a non-native Spanish speaker, it can be hard to follow when someone uses inclusive language, and I also try to use it when appropriate, but I stumble on my words trying to change the -o and -a to -e on every other word. But practice makes perfect, and I am getting better at it.
Señora Bevington, My High School Spanish Teacher, Might Not Agree
The -e ending for nouns and adjectives also affects pronouns. If you studied Spanish in high school, you probably remember learning that gender shows up throughout the language. A group of men is “ellos” (they/them) with an O. A group of women is “ellas” (they/them)with an A. And when a group includes people of different genders, traditional Spanish defaults to the masculine plural of “ellos”.
In English, we have “he” and “she”, but also “they”, which can refer to a person or group without specifying their gender. Spanish traditionally doesn't have this same type of pronoun. For someone who identifies outside the gender binary, that creates a linguistic problem, and where “elle” comes in.
Inclusive Spanish uses “elle” as a gender-neutral pronoun, alongside “él” (he) and “ella” (she). The same pattern can extend to other words: “ellos” and “ellas” become “elles”, and “nosotros” and “nosotras” become “nosotres” (we/us).
For a student learning Spanish for the first time, “elle” can therefore be more than a grammatical curiosity. It can be the first time they see a version of Spanish that gives them an option besides the traditional gender binary.
The Pronoun That Changed Everything for One Student
I really enjoy leading new student orientations at our study center in Buenos Aires. As part of the orientation, I typically introduce students to a few things they probably didn’t learn in their Spanish classes back home: the local accent, the voseo (the use of "vos" instead of "tú" in Argentina), and the three pronouns they should know: él, ella, and elle.
Él. Ella. Elle.
He. She. They.
I found that many students had never heard "elle" before. It isn’t in standard Spanish textbooks or dictionaries.
At one of my orientations, a Spanish Heritage speaker from the U.S. studying in Buenos Aires spoke up to express their joy at having found a word that truly describes them. They got chills when they heard the word for the first time, as it fit their identity perfectly. In English, they went by “they/them” pronouns, but in Spanish, that directly translates to “ellos” or “ellas”, the gendered form of the word. Now they had found a way to introduce themselves to their host family, to their professors, and other locals.
That student had been speaking Spanish their whole life with their family at home and had never known that “elle” exists.
That moment is why inclusive language matters. It’s not some abstract thing. It’s personal and gives people the words to exist.
What Inclusive Language Looks Like on the Page
Seeing inclusive language, or “lenguaje inclusivo”, written out helps to understand how it would drastically change Spanish. I enjoy bringing in important academic references to illustrate this better. And what better reference than the 2006 pop hit Todos me miran by Gloria Trevi?
Here is the original Spanish chorus:
"Y todos me miran, me miran, me miran
Porque sé que soy linda, porque todos me admiran
Y todos me miran, me miran, me miran
Porque hago lo que pocos se atreverán
Y todos me miran, me miran, me miran
Algunos con envidia pero al final, pero al final
Pero al final, todos me amarán."
Here is the chorus rewritten in inclusive Spanish:
"Y todes me miran, me miran, me miran
Porque sé que soy linda, porque todes me admiran
Y todes me miran, me miran, me miran
Porque hago lo que poques se atreverán
Y todes me miran, me miran, me miran
Algunes con envidia pero al final, pero al final
Pero al final, todes me amarán."
It almost feels like a regional language in Spain. Is that Catalán? Gallego? Nope, just Gloria Trevi being more inclusive.
By the way, I recommend checking out her spectacularly unhinged music video.
What Does the Real Academia Española Say?
While writing the above lyrics, my grammar checker was underlining every other word as misspelled. Does that mean that this inclusive version is not officially recognized as grammatically correct?
The Real Academia Española, or RAE, the official authority on the Spanish language for the last 300 years, has made its position clear. Inclusive language is unnecessary and grammatically incorrect.
The RAE has concluded that the masculine plural in Spanish already functions as a gender-neutral form, and that there is no need to introduce new endings. According to a 2023 tweet from the official RAE Twitter account, the -e suffix is "foreign to Spanish's morphological system and unnecessary."
The RAE also published a Style Manual, which in the opening chapter formally rejects the use of both "x" (as in "Latinx") and "e" as gender-neutral alternatives in written Spanish.
The pushback is not only from the RAE, either. In February 2024, Javier Milei's government banned inclusive language across Argentina's national public administration. The resolution required official communications to use only "correct" Castilian Spanish in line with RAE norms, barring gender-neutral terms and symbols like "@" and "x" from government use. Ironically, the same country whose president once pushed boundaries with "todos y todas" now has a national government trying to limit them.
The RAE decides what goes in the dictionary, much like Webster’s dictionary decides each year whether to add new English words to the lexicon. It doesn´t, however, make the words any less valid to the people who use them. The RAE has no legal authority to ban words or forms. It can refuse to include them, but it cannot stop millions of Spanish speakers from using "todes" and "elle" in their daily lives, and it hasn't. Language moves faster than the institutions that manage it.
What Comes Next
Inclusive Spanish is being shaped by young people, by activists, by non-binary speakers who needed a word for themselves and found one. It is being resisted by institutions that decide what is "correct." This is just how language evolves.
What I know from my new student orientations in Buenos Aires is that for some, learning about "elle" is important. Not the grammar itself, but the feeling of being named in a language they love.
What is my advice to anyone in international education looking to start using inclusive language in Spanish? Start sprinkling it here or there when speaking with students or colleagues. No need to incorporate it 100%, but saying “todes” or “elles” or “chiques” is an easy step to make inclusive language a part of everyone's lives.
Once everyone starts using it, the RAE will catch up and make it “official”
Murphy Scott manages our relationships with US universities and helps our partners develop authentic study abroad programs with Expanish in Latin America and Spain.
