El is used to refere to a man or in most cases an object or place ending in “o”
for example
el carro
it would be incorrect to say ”la carro”
La is the opposite, used to refer to a women or in most cases an object and place ending in A
for example
La Escuela
But it could vary
for example
the paper - El papel
papel doesn’t end in O but still is mentioned with El in front of it
This is coming from a Spanish speaker i don’t really have any experience with Spanish clases or anything so my apologies if im wrong