> L'automobile is male in Italian and Spanish. What? LA automobile is female. > Il barco La barchetta "IL barco" doesn't mean anything, it's "LA barca" which

> L'automobile is male in Italian and Spanish. What? LA automobile is female. > Il barco La barchetta "IL barco" doesn't mean anything, it's "LA barca" which, again, is female. I'd say that generally speaking "it's female when they contain people" is correct, but of course not always (LO ufficio = the office).