500 in French

Years ago, I was in my second year of college French, and the teacher (Jack Hanner) asked in French how many people lived in my town.

I wasn't sure, so I guessed 500. I told him "Cinq cents"; cinq for five and cents for hundred. He asked, "500?" in English, and I nodded.

I'd never looked up 500 in French, probably fearing that I was wrong. But recently I got the nerve, and, lo and behold, cinq cents actually means 500.

I was relieved, of course; and I was happy I'd given Mr. Hanner the correct answer (although I think I mispronounced cinq; it's SANK).

By the way, I looked it up, and my hometown had something like 800 people, not 500. So I was wrong in that regard. Eight hundred would be huit cents.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com TWITTER: EDITORatWORK.

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!

EDITOR@WORK blog entries

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing