CN- 10 electrons?

Started by jsmith1
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jsmith1

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Hey guys this is just kind of a dumb question that I am probably over complicating but..

But CN- has 10 valence electrons but C only has 4 valence and N has 5 valence...where does the other electron come from?
 
The negative sign implies there is an extra electron. A similar example is the chloride ion (Cl)- which has 8 valence electrons vs chlorine (Cl) which has 7 valence electrons