Difference between revisions of "Faux Genders"

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| style="font-weight: bold;" | tree
 
| style="font-weight: bold;" | tree
 
| style="background-color: teal;" | l'arbre (''masc'') || style="background-color: teal;" | el árbol || style="background-color: pink;" | a árvore || style="background-color: teal;" | l'albero (''masc'') || || style="background-color: pink;" | arbor (''fem'')
 
| style="background-color: teal;" | l'arbre (''masc'') || style="background-color: teal;" | el árbol || style="background-color: pink;" | a árvore || style="background-color: teal;" | l'albero (''masc'') || || style="background-color: pink;" | arbor (''fem'')
 +
|-
 +
| style="font-weight: bold;" | art
 +
| style="background-color: teal;" | l'art (''masc'') || style="background-color: teal;" | el arte || style="background-color: pink;" | a arte || style="background-color: pink;" | l'arte (''fem'') || style="background-color: teal;" | l'art (''masc'') || style="background-color: pink;" | ars (''fem'')
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="font-weight: bold;" | inch
 
| style="font-weight: bold;" | inch
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| style="font-weight: bold;" | tomato
 
| style="font-weight: bold;" | tomato
 
| style="background-color: pink;" | la tomate || style="background-color: teal;" | el tomate || style="background-color: teal;" | o tomate || || style="background-color: pink;" | la tomata
 
| style="background-color: pink;" | la tomate || style="background-color: teal;" | el tomate || style="background-color: teal;" | o tomate || || style="background-color: pink;" | la tomata
 +
|-
 +
| style="font-weight: bold;" | valley
 +
| style="background-color: pink;" | la vallée || style="background-color: teal;" | el valle || style="background-color: teal;" | o vale || style="background-color: pink;" | la valle || style="background-color: pink;" | la val || style="background-color: pink;" | valles (''fem'')
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="font-weight: bold;" | end
 
| style="font-weight: bold;" | end

Revision as of 21:09, 5 November 2004

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, and George Martin Fell Brown have been able to collect.

Faux Genders
English French Spanish Portuguese Italian Romansh Latin
colour la couleur el color a cor il colore la colur color (masc)
pain la douleur el dolor a dor il dolore dolor (masc)
shelf l'étagère (fem) el estante a estante
flower la fleur la flor a flor il fiore la flur flos (masc)
bridge le pont el puente a ponte il ponte la punt pons (masc)
tree l'arbre (masc) el árbol a árvore l'albero (masc) arbor (fem)
art l'art (masc) el arte a arte l'arte (fem) l'art (masc) ars (fem)
inch le pouce la pulgada a polegada il pollice il polesch
ice la glace el hielo o gelo il ghiaccio il glatsch glacies (fem)
minute la minute el minuto o minuto il minuto la minuta
sea la mer el mar o mar il mare la mar mare (neut)
blood le sang la sangre o sangue il sangue il sang sanguis (masc)
milk le lait la leche o leite il latte il latg lactus (masc)
salt le sel la sal o sal il sale il sal sal (masc)
glass la vitre el vidrio o vidro il vetro il vaider vitrum (neut)
car l'auto (fem) el auto o auto l'auto (fem) l'auto (masc)
tomato la tomate el tomate o tomate la tomata
valley la vallée el valle o vale la valle la val valles (fem)
end la fin el fin o fim (il/la) fine ??? la fin finis (masc)
garage le garage el garaje a garagem la garascha

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