{"id":166,"date":"2009-08-05T05:05:20","date_gmt":"2009-08-05T09:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=166"},"modified":"2009-08-05T05:05:20","modified_gmt":"2009-08-05T09:05:20","slug":"tricky-little-words-%e2%80%9cci%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/tricky-little-words-%e2%80%9cci%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Tricky little words: \u201cCi\u201d \u2013 part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I wrote a post in which I explained as best as I could the many\u00a0ways in which we use that tricky little word called ci<\/strong>. If you missed it you can read it here: Ci – part 1<\/span><\/a>\u00a0. Well done those of you who had a go at translating my two silly sentences. The aim of the exercise was to try to fit as many different types of ci<\/strong> as possible into one single sentence, therefore it was quite important to translate\u00a0each ci<\/strong>\u00a0into English even if\u00a0it was\u00a0redundant in order to\u00a0clarify their meaning. Here are my translations:<\/span><\/p>\n

1) ci<\/span> andiamo domani pomeriggio dopo che ci<\/span> siamo riposati, cos\u00ec vedremo se l\u2019armadio ci<\/span> sta. Se no, non so cosa possiamo farci<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll go there<\/span> tomorrow afternoon after we have rested ourselves<\/span>, therefore we\u2019ll\u00a0see if the wardrobe fits in there<\/span>. If not, I don\u2019t know what we can do about it<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

2) quando l\u2019acqua bolle ci<\/span> metto gli spaghetti, e poi ci vuole<\/span> il sale. Gli spaghetti ci mettono<\/span> 10 minuti a cuocere. Quando sono cotti si condiscono con l\u2019olio e ci<\/span> si macina un po\u2019 di pepe fresco che ci<\/span> sta bene.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When the water boils I\u2019ll put the spaghetti in it<\/span>, then it needs<\/span> salt. The spaghetti takes<\/span> 10 minutes to cook. When it\u2019s cooked one dresses it with oil and grinds a bit of fresh pepper on it<\/span>, which goes well with it<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sorry, I know the translations sound horrible, but I wanted to make them as literal as possible to show the many\u00a0different uses of ci<\/strong>. Here in Italy we are particularly fond of the sound of this little word, so we use it as much as possible even when it\u2019s not necessary, particularly with the verb avere<\/strong>, e.g. Giovanna:<\/em> Scusa, ci<\/span> hai una penna? <\/strong>Mario: <\/em>No, non ce<\/span> l\u2019ho <\/strong>(Giovanna: <\/em>Excuse me, have you got a pen? Mario:<\/em> No, I haven\u2019t got one), N.B. ci hai\u00a0<\/strong>(you have), ci ho<\/strong> (I have) and so on,\u00a0are pronounced as a single word, e.g.\u00a0\u201cchai\u201d<\/strong>, \u201ccho\u201d<\/strong> etc.\u00a0We also\u00a0use ci<\/strong> with the verbs sentire <\/strong>and vedere<\/strong>, e.g. Scusa, puoi ripetere? Non ci<\/span> sento bene <\/strong>(Excuse me, can you repeat that? I can\u2019t hear very\u00a0well). Things can get more confusing if you happen to travel through Toscana<\/strong>, the region of Italy that\u00a0I come from, as you will probably hear a strange sound where you would expect to find the ci<\/strong>. In Toscana\u00a0we tend to pronounce\u00a0ci<\/strong> like the English word\u00a0\u201cshe\u201d instead of the more\u00a0\u2018correct\u2019 pronunciation \u201cchee\u201d, so\u00a0last example, non ci<\/span> sento bene<\/strong>, would sound like non \u201cshe\u201d sento bene<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrivederci! <\/strong>or should I say Arrivedershee!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I wrote a post in which I explained as best as I could the many\u00a0ways in which we use that tricky little word called ci. If you missed it you can read it here: Ci – part 1\u00a0. Well done those of you who had a go at translating my two silly sentences…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6,619],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","category-italian-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1951,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions\/1951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}