While I was studying my French book I ran across the following list of masculine nouns:
- le chat (the cat)
- le chien (the dog)
- le cours (the class/cours)
- le football (soccer)
- le livre (the book)
- le vin (the wine)
And I had to take a moment. See, because I speak Spanish I try to take learning shortcuts by relating "new learnings" to the "old things" I already know. It would be a lot easier if *every* word I knew in Spanish was also the same gender in all other Latin languages.
If masculine words in Spanish were also masculine words in French and feminine words in Spanish were also feminine words in French, this journey would be slightly easier.
Be advised. This is *not* the case. Do not think just because you know that "the class" in Spanish is the feminine word, La clase, that the French word for class will also be feminine.
IT IS NOT. Class in French is actually a masculine word. Le cours.
Forget whatever you learned in Spanish class.
If you already speak one language you will have to RELEARN not only the actual words in French (clase vs. cours) but the gender of each noun. Activate face of horror now.
There are many other words that you will be re-learning genders of, a few I've noticed so far:
- el banco (spanish)= LA banque (French) ---> The Bank
- el lenguaje/el idioma (Spanish) = LA Langue (French) ----> The Language
- el carro (Spanish)= LA Voiture (French) ---> The Car
Hopefully there are not too many of these opposite cases, but, your best bet is to memorize the gender of each noun independently of any prior other-language knowledge or preconceived notions, because those things can get you in trouble.
Fellow learners: Do not be dismayed. Stay the course.
Is there a French for Spanish-Speakers book? Let me know any the comments if you run into any such resources.