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1 - It is used with the verb essere in such expressions c’è and ci sono:
C’è ----------------there is
Ci sono ----------there are
Ci sono - I am here
Sei a scuola? No ci vado adesso - are you at school? no, I’m going to school (there) now
Conosco bene Londra perché ci ho abitato - I know London well because I lived there
Sabato Anna e Daniela danno una festa. Tu ci vai? (Tu vai alla festa?)
Anna and Daniela are throwing a party on Saturday. Are you going?
Hai una sigaretta? (or, very informal language, “ c’hai una sigaretta?”) –> Do you have a
cigarette?/ Have you got a cigarette?
Mary ci dà un gelato - Mary gives us an ice cream ( gives an ice cream to us)
5 - We also use ci in the pronome riflessivo (reflexive pronoun) to mean ‘ourselves’ with
reflexive verbs (vestirsi, lavarsi, pettinarsi, asciugarsi, accorgersi, etc):
Ci stiamo lavando le mani (we are washing our hands, literally ‘we are washing ourselves
the hands)
Ci alziamo – we get up
6 – With such verbs: starci, volerci, metterci, crederci, provarci, pensarci, capirci
The verb volerci agrees with the object that is needed in terms of number.
per fare un tavolo ci vuole il legno (making a table requires wood, or to make a table
you need wood);
la pasta è quasi cotta, ci vogliono ancora 2 minuti (the pasta is nearly cooked, it needs
another 2 minutes)
Ci vogliono 2 ore per arrivare a los Angeles (it takes 2 hours to get to Los Angeles)
Questo vestito è troppo piccolo per te, non credo che ci starai.
This dress is too small for you, I don’t think you’ll fit in it
Metterci = used when you would say "takes" in English in reference to the amount of
time or the number of resources (like people) needed to do something.
The verb can be replaced by volerci but we need to change the structure of the
sentence (unlike volerci, metterci changes in the plural to agree with the number of
objects or persons that are ‘taking the time’ not the amount of time taken).
Hence:
but
i treni per Firenze ci mettono un’ora (the trains to Florence take two hours)
non ci capisco nulla - I don’t understand anything about it, or I don’t understand any
of it