Faux Genders

Spanish and French, both being Romance languages, have a gender attribute to their nouns. Also, being related, many words have the same origin. These are called cognates. In French, cognates that don't have the same meaning as their source are called faux amis. Having studied French before Spanish, and not ever having been good at remembering what gender a given noun was in French, I found it convenient to rely on Spanish when I needed a noun's gender, since remembering a noun's gender in Spanish is as simple as learning only a few rules and a handful of exceptions. However, it turns out that not all French-Spanish cognates have the same gender, though probably well over 90% do.

Here's a small compilation of exceptions that Jonathan North Washington, Hannah Beth Washington, George Martin Fell Brown, and Michael-Forest Meservy have been able to collect.

The Chart

Faux Genders

English	Latin	French	Spanish	Portuguese	Italian	Galician	Jèrriais	Cotentinais	Romanian	Occitan	Catalan	Sardinian	Romansh
First declension
edge, border	ora, orae (1f)	la bordure	la orla	a orla	l'orlo (masc)	o bordo			bordură (fem)			oru
Second declension
nose	nasus, nasi (2m)	le nez	la nariz	o nariz	il naso	o nariz	l'nez					nasu	il nas
journey, voyage	viaticus, viatici (2m)	le voyage	el viaje	a viagem	il viaggio	a viaxe					el viatge
glass	vitrum, vitri (2n)	le verre	el vidrio	o vidro	il vetro	o vidro	l'vèrre					bidru	il vaider
		la vitre					l'vitre					vetru
Third declension
flower	flos, floris (3m)	la fleur	la flor	a flor	il fiore	a flor	la flieur	la flleur	floare (fem)			flore	la flur
									înflorire (fem)			fiore
colour	color, coloris (3m)	la couleur	el color	a cor	il colore	a cor	la couleu	la couoleu	culoare (fem)		el color	colore	la colur
									colorit (neut)		la color
pain	dolor, doloris (3m)	la douleur	el dolor	a dor	il dolore	a dor			durere (fem)		el dolore	dolore
											la dolore
bridge	pons, pontis (3m)	le pont	el puente	a ponte	il ponte	a ponte			punte (fem)		el pǫnt	ponte	la punt
									ponton; pod (neut.)			ponti
inch	pollex, pollicis (3m)	le pouce	la pulgada	a polegada	il pollice	a polgada						poddighe (mannu)	il polesch
blood	sanguis, sanguinis (3m)	le sang	la sangre	o sangue	il sangue	o sangue	l'sang		sînge ("masc")	sang (fem)		sanguni	il sang
										sang (masc)		sangu
salt	sal, salis (3m)	le sel	la sal	o sal	il sale	o sal			sare (fem)		la sal	sale	il sal
labor, task, ploughing	labor, laboris (3m)	le labeur	la labor	o lavouro	il lavoro	o labor
		le labour
end	finis, finis (3m, i-stem)	la fin	el fin	o fim	la fine	o fin						fine	la fin
					il fine							finis
tree	arbor, arboris (3f)	l'arbre (masc)	el árbol	a árvore	l'albero (masc)	a árbore	l'arbre (masc); l'bouais	l'âbre (masc)				arvere
												a(l/r)bure
art	ars, artis (3f)	l'art (masc)	el arte	a arte	l'arte (fem)	a arte	l'art (masc)					arte	l'art (masc)
			las artes
custom	consuetudo, consuetudinis (3f)	la coutume	la costumbre	o costume	il costume	o costume						costumene
origin	origo, originis (3f)	l'origine (fem)	el origen	a origem	l'origine (fem)	a orixe			origine (fem)			origine
hail	grando, grandinis (3f)	la grêle	el granizo	o granizo	la grandine	la granella
milk	lac, lactis (3n)	le lait	la leche	o leite	il latte	o leite	l'lait		lapte (neut)	lach	llet	latte	il latg
sea	mar, maris (3n)	la mer	el mar	o mar	il mare	o mar	la mé	la mé	mare (fem)			mare	la mar
honey	mel, mellis (3n)	le miel	la miel	o mel	il miele	o mel			miere (fem)		el mel	miele
											la mel
Fourth declension
Fifth declension
ice	glacies, glaciei (5f)	la glace	el hielo	o gelo	il ghiaccio	o xeo						ghiacciu	il glatsch
landscape		le paysage	el paisaje	a paisagem	il paesaggio	a paisaxe						paesaggiu
cloud	nubes, nubis (?f)	le nuage	la nube	a nuvem	la nuvola	a nube	l'nouage	la nuaée				nue	il nivel
valley	valles, vallis (?f)	la vallée	el valle	o vale	la valle	o val	la vallée				la vall	badde	la val
												valli
flag		le drapeau	la bandera	a bandeira	la bandiera	a bandeira	la couleu	la couoleu
spider		l'araignée (fem)	la araña	a aranha	il ragno	a araña	l'pêtre
Neologisms
make-up		le maquillage	el maquillaje	a maquiagem
garage		le garage	el garaje	a garagem		o garaxe			garaj (neut)		el garatge		la garascha
car		l'auto (fem)	el auto	o auto	l'auto (fem)	l'auto (masc)	la vaituthe; moto (?)	la qùérette; la maringote; l'éto (?)	automobil (neut)		l'auto (masc)
tomato		la tomate	el tomate	o tomate		o tomate	la tanmate		tomată		el tomàquet		la tomata
Created from adjectival forms
minute		la minute	el minuto	o minuto	il minuto	o minuto	la minnute	la minute	minut				la minuta
Derived from verbs
conquest		la conquète	la conquista	a conquista	la conquista	a conquista	la contchête	le conqùet
shelf		l'étagère (fem)	el estante	a estante		o estante

Footnotes

1. This is the first test footnote ¹
2. This is the second

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