I agree. In my native English, I normally hear the "neuter" pronoun 'it' for all countries. I have heard "she" used for countries, cities, and states, but very rarely, and there's always an emotional or poetic context. I've never heard a country referred to as "he".GracchusBabeuf wrote: ↑Thu Apr 28, 2022 1:34 amNouns aren't really gendered in English. Even if they have a technical gender it doesn't have any effect on speech, since "the" is the same no matter what.
Another place gender creeps into my English is with some animals. I often hear (and say) the pronoun "he" for a dog when I don't know the dog's actual gender, and similarly "she" for a cat. Maybe that's just me.