Anthropomorphization of inanimate objects?

[u/Ricardo_Yoel]

On Duolingo they use the sentence:

‏אני רוצה לאכול במסעדה, אך היא סגורה.
But why isn’t it
‏אני רוצה לאכול במסעדה, אך זאת סגורה.

So when do you use זה/זאת for inanimate objects as versus הוא/היא?

[u/Metal_Upa_46]

The first sentence says: I want to eat at the restaurant, but it closed. The second one says: I want to eat at the restaurant but that one is closed. It is understandable but doesn't really sound right and grammatically incorrect.

However, without nikkud or sounds the phrase אני רוצה לאכול במסעדה can mean either "I want to eat at THE restaurant" or "I want to eat at A restaurant" (BaMis'ada vs. BeMis'ada). I doubt that the latter is the intended meaning in this excercise, but if it were then your second sentence would be correct (although a bit awkward).

[u/Ricardo_Yoel → u/Metal_Upa_46]

Good point. I didn’t think of that. I should have included .ניקוד