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	French	Spanish	Portuguese	Italian	Romansh	Latin	Jèrriais	Cotentinais	Romanian
flower	la fleur	la flor	a flor	il fiore	la flur	flos (masc)	la flieur	la flleur
colour	la couleur	el color	a cor	il colore	la colur	color (masc)	la couleu	la couoleu
pain	la douleur	el dolor	a dor	il dolore		dolor (masc)
shelf	l'étagère (fem)	el estante	a estante
garage	le garage	el garaje	a garagem		la garascha
origen	l'origine (fem)	el origen	a origem	l'origine (fem)
landscape	le paysage	el paisaje	a paisagem	il paesaggio
make-up	le maquillage	el maquillaje	a maquiagem
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)	l'arbre (masc); l'bouais	l'âbre (masc)
art	l'art (masc)	el arte	a arte	l'arte (fem)	l'art (masc)	ars (fem)	l'art (masc)
		las artes
cloud	le nuage	la nube	a nuvem	la nuvola	il nivel	nubes (fem)	l'nouage	la nuaée
inch	le pouce	la pulgada	a polegada	il pollice	il polesch
blood	le sang	la sangre	o sangue	il sangue	il sang	sanguis (masc)	l'sang
milk	le lait	la leche	o leite	il latte	il latg	lactus (masc)	l'lait
nose	le nez	la nariz	o nariz	il naso	il nas	nasus (masc)	l'nez
salt	le sel	la sal	o sal	il sale	il sal	sal (masc)
glass	le verre	el vidrio	o vidro	il vetro	il vaider	vitrum (neut)	l'vèrre
	la vitre						l'vitre
ice	la glace	el hielo	o gelo	il ghiaccio	il glatsch	glacies (fem)
minute	la minute	el minuto	o minuto	il minuto	la minuta		la minnute	la minute
sea	la mer	el mar	o mar	il mare	la mar	mare (neut)	la mé	la mé
car	l'auto (fem)	el auto	o auto	l'auto (fem)	l'auto (masc)		la vaituthe; moto (?)	la qùérette; la maringote; l'éto (?)
tomato	la tomate	el tomate	o tomate		la tomata		la tanmate
hail	la grêle	el granizo	o granizo	la grandine	la granella	grando (fem)
valley	la vallée	el valle	o vale	la valle	la val	valles (fem)	la vallée
end	la fin	el fin	o fim	(il/la) fine ???	la fin	finis (masc)
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
This is an example section divider
honey	le miel	la miel	o mel	il miele
edge	la bordure	la orla	a orla	l'orlo (masc)
custom	la coutume	la costumbre	o costume	il costume
labor, task, ploughing	le labeur	la labor	o lavouro	il lavoro
	le labour

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