Re: French liaisons (was something else)

Doug Dee wrote:

>In a message dated 2/7/2004 3:49:52 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>yonjuuni@EARTHLINK.NET writes:
>
>
>
>>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?
>>
>>
>
>I think you're misinterpreting here.
>
>"trois cents francs" = "three hundred [300] francs"
>"trois cent vingt francs" = "three hundred twenty [320] francs" (not "twenty
>francs & three centimes").
>
>
>
Indeed.  And three centimes would be a rediculously small amount, at
least in the later 20th century.