The French word for “cent” (as in $0.01) is simply un cent. In this sense, the French word cent sounds like the English word “cent,” and not like the French word for 100.
In other words, the French word cent in the sense of $0.01 sounds like the English word “sent.”
Very often, however, you’ll hear an informal pronunciation of cent in French, such as in this quote from the TV series La Galère:
J’ai plus une clisse de cenne.
I don’t have a darn cent left.[Said by the character Antoine in La Galère, season 2, episode 10, Radio-Canada, Montreal, 16 November 2009.]
In the quote above, cenne is an informal pronunciation of cent.
Note: We say un cent, but une cenne.
There are a few other informal features in the quote above:
J’ai plus is an informal way of saying je n’ai plus. The ne dropped here, as often happens in spoken, informal French. The s in plus is silent in this example.
Clisse is a weaker version of crisse, which comes from the name “Christ.” (Crisse is vulgar in Quebec French.)
