Inconsistency in UK region/ county genders

Question

Hello, Can you please help me understand how to ‘gender’ UK counties? The lesson suggests that female regions end in an ‘e’. Yet the ones I’ve encountered (Hampshire, Merseyside) are masculine. Cornwall, with no ‘e’, is feminine. How am I meant to work this out? Is there any rule? Or is it just random and I have to remember them all?

Accepted Answer

See the additional lesson which is linked also in the one you have referred to in your post : 
https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/continents-countries-counties-regions-and-states-are-masculine-feminine-or-plural-gender

Answer

You can think of the British counties as masculine (despite a possible ending in -e) if their spelling is the same in French as it is in English. On the internet I found that Cornwall is increasingly also called le Cornwall in French. This seems to be to avoid confusion with the French region la Cornouaille, which is a part of Brittany.

So, you see, it is actually very easy.