How is the gender of cities/countries determined in English? [closed]

Solution 1:

English has almost completely lost gender. Our pronouns are gendered, with

• masculine (he, him, his, etc.)
• feminine (she, her, hers, etc.)
• neuter (it, its, etc.)
• and unspecified (I, me, we, us, you, they, etc.)

However, nouns (including proper nouns, i.e. names given to individuals) are not gendered unless they have a natural (physiological) gender, e.g. lion (masculine or unspecified), lioness (feminine), Andrew (masculine), Andrea (feminine).

Cities, being inanimate objects, have no natural gender and are all neuter.

What do you think of Rome? It's a beautiful city!

Generally speaking, only people and animals get masculine or feminine pronouns, with animals being called it unless their gender is known. It's also considered rude to call a person it, as it implies that they're a thing, not a person.

The only exception is some machinery or vehicles which are occasionally given a feminine gender:

It's a beautiful ship! (normal usage)

She's a beautiful ship! (emphatic use, the speaker feels an emotional connection to the object)

Cities don't fit into this category, so you can't say:

What do you think of Rome? *She's a beautiful city!

Doing so will mark you as a foreign speaker to most people.