Re: French liaisons (was something else)

Philippe Caquant wrote:
> As to liaisons, something interesting happened when
> euro took the place of french franc. There is a
> grammatical rule that says that the word “cent” should
> be used as a plural in expressions like “trois cents
> francs”, but as a singular in expressions like “trois
> cent vingt francs”.
So, French places the smaller unit first, 3 cent 20 francs, instead of
20 francs 3 cents?  Interesting.  What would "trois cents francs" mean?
Is that .03 franc?

English (at least American English, don't know about other forms) does
odd things with money.  $1.50 can be read "a dollar fifty" or
"one-fifty" while $2.50 can be read "two dollars and fifty cents" (less
common) or "two-fifty" (most common).  That is, when "dollar" is plural,
you have to use "and" and "cents".  :-)

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