{"id":362,"date":"2010-04-23T08:21:14","date_gmt":"2010-04-23T08:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=362"},"modified":"2010-04-23T08:21:14","modified_gmt":"2010-04-23T08:21:14","slug":"ce-la-fai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/ce-la-fai\/","title":{"rendered":"Ce La Fai?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Farcela<\/strong> is a very commonly used idiomatic expression which means ‘to manage’ [to do something], or ‘to succeed’. It is composed of the verb fare<\/strong> (to make\/to do) and the pronouns ‘ce’<\/strong> and ‘la’<\/strong>. It can be used on its own, e.g. ce la fai?<\/strong> (can you manage?), or it can be followed by the preposition ‘a’ <\/strong>and an infinitive, e.g. ce la fai a passarmi quella scatola lass\u00f9?<\/strong> (can you manage to pass me that box up there?).<\/font><\/p>\n

Here are some more examples of how to use it, firstly in the present tense:<\/font><\/p>\n

ce la fate ad essere pronti per le otto?<\/strong> (can you [plural]<\/em> manage to be ready by eight o’ clock?)<\/font><\/p>\n

questo quadro \u00e8 molto pesante, non so se ce la faccio a portarlo da solo<\/strong> (this picture is very heavy, I don’t know if I can manage to carry it on my own)<\/font><\/p>\n

se ce la facciamo, passiamo a salutarvi prima di partire<\/strong> (if we can manage it, we’ll come by to say goodbye before we leave)<\/font><\/p>\n

…now in the future tense:<\/font><\/p>\n

non so se ce la faremo a venire al cinema stasera<\/strong> (I don’t know if we’ll be able to come to the cinema this evening)  <\/font><\/p>\n

ce la faranno i nostri eroi a ……?<\/strong> (will our heroes manage to ….?) this was the classic dramatic ending in many of the fumetti <\/strong>(comics) that I read as a child.<\/font><\/p>\n

ce la far\u00e0 Giovanni a prendere l’aereo?<\/strong> (will Giovanni manage to catch the plane?)<\/font><\/p>\n

…and in the past tense (passato prossimo<\/strong> – present perfect)<\/font>:<\/font><\/p>\n

anche se il treno era in ritardo, ce l’abbiamo fatta ad arrivare in tempo<\/strong> (even though the train was late, we managed to arrive on time)<\/font><\/p>\n

Cecilia non ce l’ha fatta a superare l’esame di Latino<\/strong> (Cecilia didn’t manage to pass the Latin exam)<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00e8 stata dura ma ce l’ho fatta!<\/strong> (it was hard but I managed it!)<\/font><\/p>\n

N.B. as you can see in the examples given above, the pronoun ‘la’ <\/strong>changes the past participle ‘fatto<\/u>‘<\/strong> to ‘fatta<\/u>‘<\/strong>.<\/font><\/p>\n

There are a couple of other idiomatic expressions which share the same construction as farcela<\/strong>, and therefore follow the same rules. The first is avercela<\/strong>, which means ‘to be upset with’ or ‘annoyed with’ someone, e.g.:<\/font><\/p>\n

Perch\u00e9 ce l’hai con Mario, che cosa ti ha fatto?<\/strong> (why are you annoyed with Mario, what has he done?)<\/font><\/p>\n

The second is mettercela tutta<\/strong> (to do one’s best or to put everything into an enterprise), e.g:<\/font><\/p>\n

non so come \u00e8 andato l’esame, ma ce l’ho messa tutta!<\/strong> (I don’t know how the exam went but I did my best!)<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Spero che ce l’abbiate fatta a capire tutto.<\/strong> <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Farcela is a very commonly used idiomatic expression which means ‘to manage’ [to do something], or ‘to succeed’. It is composed of the verb fare (to make\/to do) and the pronouns ‘ce’ and ‘la’. It can be used on its own, e.g. ce la fai? (can you manage?), or it can be followed by the…<\/p>\n

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