Pronoun referring to a city - il or elle?

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on October 5, 2010 at 12:35am

Actually, the opposite is more or less true -- usage is tending towards towns and cities being masculine.

However, you'll find variation among speakers and writers-- some may well make towns feminine because of the reason you mention, or because they think the name "sounds" or "looks" feminine (e.g. names ending in -e or -lle like Marseille, Lille).

By rewriting, you can also avoid the issue, e.g. Grâce à ses nombreux musées, Paris est une ville fascinante.

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Permalink Reply by Elissa Lichtenstein on October 5, 2010 at 1:36am

Thank you! This is very helpful.

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