# is it right to call cities "it"?



## Anymodal (Mar 5, 2005)

when im going to talk about a city i never can decide if use "it" or something like "he" or "she".

personally, i think cities are pretty much like people, they have nice sides, bad sides, character, and i even think some of them are more masculines than others. do you agree?


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## GVNY (Feb 16, 2004)

I don't believe 'it' matters, although I tend to use 'she'.


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## tkr (Apr 3, 2005)

in latin languages (french, spanish, italian, portuguese), we call them 'she', rite?


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## djm19 (Jan 3, 2005)

but it is an 'it'. Except in some context when you would refer to a city as 'they'.

the character and masculinity of a city is all opinion. Gender and the ability to reproduce (or help in the process) is fact and only female species are refered to as she and only male species are he. 

Some people think its cool or whatever to call a city she, like they call a car "she". It sounds more story-like, more interesting. Like your talking about the city as if you would talk about your girlfriend.


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## tkr (Apr 3, 2005)

yeah djm19, but that is an english language point of view.. in latin languages, as I said, every object have a gender.. but in english, it's just 'it'


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## rt_0891 (Mar 13, 2005)

I don't know if it's a personal habit, but for cities and countries within the British Commonwealth I refer to it as "She". All the others, I use "it".


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## railway stick (Jan 16, 2005)

*IT.*

In The Netherlands we pronounce cities with `It`. For example `Rotterdam and its harbour` or `The Hague and its royal palace`. The same like the English people do. In Germany they use the term `Ihre`or `Eure` or `der`
Stadt. It`s somewhat different from our expressions. For example `Cologne mit Ihrem Zoo`. That means her zoo. In France cities are pronounced by `la`,
that means a female expression. The kind I like, French is the most beautiful foreign language I speak.....


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## SUNNI (Sep 20, 2002)

"It's a nice city"
to my ears sound much more natural than
"She's a nice city"


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## samsonyuen (Sep 23, 2003)

I use "It", because I'm not a captain of a ship ("Thar she blows, arrr."), like from the Simpsons.


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## Anymodal (Mar 5, 2005)

well, it might be just that in spanish we use she and that's confusing.


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## London_2006 (Feb 9, 2003)

I say 'it', as English doesn't give genders to all its nouns. One thing I never understood though; why do some modes of transport e.g. ships and aircraft get referred to as 'she' in English? They must be the only nouns that we give a gender to.


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## DarkFenX (Jan 8, 2005)

I would use "it". If I use "she" or "he" it makes me feel as though I am calling someone a city.


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## DrJekyll (Sep 23, 2004)

shosho said:


> in latin languages (french, spanish, italian, portuguese), we call them 'she', rite?



In latin languages, except for romanian (orasul) the gender of "city" is always feminine 

A cidade, in portuguese 
la ville, la cité, in french 
la ciutat, in catalan 
la ciudad, la villa in spanish 
la città in italian 

but then when you name some cities, at least in Spanish, it can be both masculine or feminine as you "feel" it. 

Madrid can be "bello" or "bella", "limpio" or "limpia" 

Some other cities are undoubtfully feminine, like Barcelona or Valencia.


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## djm19 (Jan 3, 2005)

London_2006 said:


> I say 'it', as English doesn't give genders to all its nouns. One thing I never understood though; why do some modes of transport e.g. ships and aircraft get referred to as 'she' in English? They must be the only nouns that we give a gender to.



No, those are "it" as well. Some people just like to refer to their boat as she, or their ship as she. "She" is a little bit more of an emotional term than "it".


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## Leienaar (Oct 15, 2002)

@railway stick

No we don't. "The city" is translated in Dutch as "de stad", not "het stad". "De" is the male/female form, "het" is the neutral form. Your example: Rotterdam and its harbour is translated as "Rotterdam en haar haven" so it is female. We don't even have a word for "its", so you will always have to choose between "his" (zijn) or "her" (haar).


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## ƒƒ (Dec 31, 2004)

In Dutch we say 'de stad', indeed the male/female form. Cities are beautiful, that's why they are female  
We only say 't Stad (short form of 'het Stad') when we refer to Antwerp.


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## goschio (Dec 2, 2002)

I never use he or she for a city. It sounds very strange for me. Same for countries.


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## fcom1 (Nov 29, 2004)

In Italian all the cityes are "she"


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## PotatoGuy (May 10, 2005)

i think it just depends on what language you speak


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## *Sweetkisses* (Dec 26, 2004)

I say "it"


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## Waldenstrom (Dec 13, 2006)

I always use "it"


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## urbanjim (Feb 22, 2008)

It's interesting, the different uses of "she" for non-feminine things.

Many people use "she" when they're referring to things with motors, most commonly used when discussing modes of transportation. They basically equate a ship/car/truck/whatever with a tempermental woman. As in, "take it easy with her, she's a little testy today." 

Others call something dear to them "she" as a term of respect. As in, "this old building, she's seen a lot of history." Certainly a city can be dear to someone, so I think it's perfectly acceptable to call it "she".


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## Gratianus Funarius (Aug 30, 2008)

In Croatia it depends about the name of the city.
For instance, Zagreb, Split, Osijek, Varaždin, Zadar are masculine.
Rijeka, Pula, Požega are feminine.
Vinkovci, Delnice are plural. 
Word city (grad) itself is masculine, village is neuter, county and municipality are feminine.


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## James Saito (Nov 6, 2002)

I call everyone "she" including male.


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## Dallas star (Jul 6, 2006)

hmm, depends.


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

if you're speaking english, you have no choice but to refer to a city using "it". anything else would be incorrect.


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## deranged (Jan 22, 2009)

I wonder if people ever colloquially refer to the various Johnson Cities in the US as "she"...


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## ReiAyanami (May 14, 2008)

In Greek city, (πόλη) is a feminine noun. (there have genders like in German) But not all cities are "she" and not all cities are in singular. In ancient times all cities were in plural, but most turned singular (for English speakers, Athens is consider plural?)


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