Le Petit Robert, a mainstream French dictionary, included a listing for iel and iels as: “Third person subject personal pronoun – singular and plural – used to refer to a person of any gender.” It mentions alternative spellings ielle and ielles.
The dictionary’s editorial director, Marie-Hélène Drivaud, spoke to the French LGBTQ magazine TETU onthe inclusion. “We looked at statistics showing that many people were looking up the word ‘iel,’ so we thought it made sense to give them an answer,” Drivaud said.
Le Petit Robert’s director enquired about further inclusive forms iel (such as the object pronoun ellui), however, Drivaud revealed their usage hasn’t “stabilized.” “The intention is there, notably for other words like ‘celleux’ [for