The Italian Verb “Metterci”
Meaning
The Italian verb mettere literally means “to put”, but when used in combination with the locative pronoun ci, it takes on the meaning of taking a certain amount of time to do something.
In fact, metterci is used to express how long someone takes to complete an action, for example:
Ci metto un’ora per arrivare.
It takes me an hour to get there.
Quanto ci metti a finire il lavoro?
How long does it take you to finish the work?
As you can see, the verb changes depending on the subject, namely the person who spends a certain amount of time doing something.
Conjugation
As with all pronominal verbs – those verbs that require a pronoun to be properly conjugated – the verb metterci must be divided: the pronoun on the one hand, and the standard conjugation of the verb mettere on the other.
Of course, make sure you know the rules of pronouns placement with verbs in Italian!
Let me show you the present tense:
- (io) ci metto– it takes me
- (tu) ci metti– it takes you
- (lui / lei) ci mette– it takes him/her
- (noi) ci mettiamo– it takes us
- (voi) ci mettete– it takes you
- (loro) ci mettono– it takes them
Unlike reflexive verbs, where the reflexive pronoun changes depending on the subject, the pronoun ci never changes when used in this structure.
The pronoun ci has several different meanings, but it is typically used as a locative pronoun, meaning it substitutes for nouns referring to places. To make the use of this structure easier, I always tell my students they should interpret it in the same way here as well.
So, try to perceive it as standing for “in it”, “there”, resulting in a translation like:
Ci metto un’ora per finire il lavoro.
In this situation I spend one hour to finish the work.
Ci mette almeno 30 minuti a prepararsi.
In this situation she spends at least 30 minutes to get ready.
When using metterci to indicate the time it takes to perform an action, we generally use a preposition that introduces the action. This can be either a or per. The choice between them depends on the context:
- The preposition a is used to specify an action namely to inform about what takes time.
- The preposition per is used to indicate the purpose or the goal of the time spent, giving a sense of “in order to”.
Both prepositions are correct, so it’s up to you to choose the aim of your sentences. Remember that both prepositions are followed by a verb in infinitive tense.
Let me show you some more examples:
Quanto ci metti ad arrivare in ufficio?
How long does it take you to get to the office?
Ci mettiamo un’ora a preparare la cena.
It takes us one hour to cook dinner.
Quanto ci mettete ad andare a Venezia in treno?
How long does it take you to get to Venice by train?
“Metterci” vs “Volerci”
Volerci is another pronominal verb, also used to indicate how long it takes to complete an action. Both metterci and volerci share the ci structure, meaning they necessarily require the pronoun ci to be conjugated and this pronoun never changes.
However, there is an important difference between these two verbs. Here, I will explain this difference how I explain it to my students:
- metterci is subjective: it is used to emphasize how long it takes a specific person to complete an action. This is why it is conjugated according to the subject of the sentence, taking on a subjective meaning..
- volerciis objective: it is used to emphasize the amount of time that is needed to complete an action. This is why it can be conjugated either in the third person singular or plural only.
In this sense, we might say that volerci sounds more impersonal than metterci.
Ci metto un’ora ad arrivare in centro.
It takes me one hour to get to the office (to me specifically).
Ci vuole un’ora ad arrivare in centro.
It takes one hour to get to the city center (to anyone, to people in general).
