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 Washington, and George M.F. Brown have been able to collect.
| English | French | Spanish | Portuguese | Italian | Romansh | Latin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| colour | la couleur | el color | a cor | il colore | la colur | |
| pain | la douleur | el dolor | a dor | il dolore | ||
| flower | la fleur | la flor | a flor | il fiore | la flur | flos (masc) |
| end | la fin | el fin | o fim | (il/la) fine ??? | la fin | |
| inch | le pouce | la pulgada | a polegada | il pollice | il polesch | |
| ice | la glace | el hielo | o gelo | il ghiaccio | il glatsch | |
| minute | la minute | el minuto | o minuto | il minuto | la minuta | |
| blood | le sang | la sangre | o sangue | il sangue | il sang | |
| sea | la mer | el mar | o mar | il mare | la mar | |
| milk | le lait | la leche | o leite | il latte | il latg | lactus (masc) |
| salt | le sel | la sal | o sal | il sale | il sal | |
| tomato | la tomate | el tomate | o tomate | la tomata | ||
| tree | l'arbre (masc) | el árbol | a árvore | l'albero (masc) | ||
| bridge | le pont | el puente | a ponte | il ponte | la punt | |
| glass | la vitre | el vidrio | o vidro | il vetro | il vaider | |
| car | l'auto (fem) | el auto | o auto | l'auto (fem) | l'auto (masc) |
Back to Linguistic Musings
