Is the people in a city considered female?

JoakimC1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Is the people in a city considered female?

From the C1 week 62 writing challenge, talking about a heat wave: "á Paris par exemple, elles ont atteint les 29°C vers 4h du matin". No particular group of people were mentioned in previous sentences, so why "elles"? Are the inhabitants of Paris (or perhaps of cities in general) as a group considered female?
Asked 6 years ago
AurélieKwiziq team memberCorrect answer
Bonjour Joakim !

In the context of this challenge, the "elles" here referred to the temperatures :)
"une température"

Bonne journée !
RonC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Bonjour Joakim, Il y a 3 or 5 mots qui sont utilisés pour «people» : --(gen) gens mpl --(indefinite use) people say that ... on dit que ..., les gens disent que ... --(= individuals) personnes fpl --(of a particular kind) old people les personnes fpl âgées --(= citizens) peuple m --(= nation, race) peuple m (= ordinary people) the people le peuple et generic, lambda Mais, dans l'exemple donné, l'auteur parle de la température, pas des personnes. [of air, water, place, room, oven] température f Le mot température est au féminin dont ce requiert l'usage d'elles. J'espère que ma réponse vous aidera. Bonne chance!
JoakimC1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Aha. In my native Swedish it wouldn't make sense to talk about temperatures in plural like this, so I assumed "elles" was the people who measured or experienced the temperatures. Merci!
RonC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Aaah, bien sûr ! Ce n'était pas une problème, je suis très ravi d'avoir vous aidé. Bonne soirée et bonne chance dans votre études français. Ron

Is the people in a city considered female?

From the C1 week 62 writing challenge, talking about a heat wave: "á Paris par exemple, elles ont atteint les 29°C vers 4h du matin". No particular group of people were mentioned in previous sentences, so why "elles"? Are the inhabitants of Paris (or perhaps of cities in general) as a group considered female?

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