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

Footnotes

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

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