noun genders with countries

Question

hi, I took the test and i understand that Switzerland is feminine but why is there a masculine pronoun ils at the beginning? ils detesent la suisse. Shouldn't it be elles not ils?thanksnicole

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Nicole,
The pronoun, "Ils", in "Ils detestent la Suisse." refers to "they" which is the subject of the sentence:  "They hate Switzerand."
"They" could be either masculine or feminine, but in this case it happens to be masculine. ie. The subject is a group of males, (or a mixture of males and females) who are doing the action of hating.
You could easily say, "Elles détestent la Suisse." The subject, "elles", is a group of girls or women.
Switzerland is a feminine country so it takes the article "La".
You could also say, "Ils détestent le Portugal"; or "Elles détestent le Portugal."
The definite article preceding the country is "le", (masculine) or "la" (feminine) depending on whether the country is masculine or feminine. 
Hope this helps.
Et, Bonne continuation !