Why are both "Presidente" and "Presidenta" accepted as correct translations?

Question

Duolingo wanted me to choose between multiple options for the translation of "*She is the president of that organization*". I chose "*Ella es la presidente de esa organizacion*" but it was counted as wrong, because, they say, both that ***and*** "*Ella es la presidenta de esa organizacion*" are correct. Why would "*president*" be either "*la presidente*" ***or*** "*la presidenta*"?

Answer 1

This happens, because "presidente" was the only accepted way of saying that word decades ago. However, more recently, words have been adapted to match the gender of the subject in a sentence. In this case your subject was female. Because of this, while the best translation is "presidenta", "presidente can also be aceptable".

Answer 2

Originally, the word "presidenta" didn't even exist. Presidents in history were always men and the word was only used in a masculine form. Languages are constantly changing, and now that there are female presidents, "presidenta" is a common and generally accepted word.

Considering that "she" is female, the word "presidente" would have to be female too. One way to do this is to change the "el" in "el presidente" to "la." However, now that people commonly use "presidenta," "la presidenta" is also an acceptable way to do it.

Generally, when you change the gender of the noun it will do one of the two or the other. (It will change either the article, "el" to "la," or it will change the article and the word to a feminine form) However, considering that in terms of language "presidenta" is a newer word, either way is still considered acceptable.