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ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian expression of the day: ‘Ci siamo’

Are you up to speed with this useful phrase?

Published: 19 November 2020 15:01 CET
Updated: 15 December 2023 17:10 CET

Italian expression of the day ci siamo

Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

If you’ve ever agonised over an Italian menu – and frankly who hasn’t – the chances are a waiter has eventually attempted to bring your deliberations to a close by inquiring: “Ci siamo?“

Made up of the verb essere (‘to be’) and the adverb ci (‘here/there’), it literally translates as ‘here we are’, but in the form of a question it can mean anything from ‘Are you ready?’ to ‘All good?’

You can use it to check that someone has understood you, that they agree with you, or that they’re good to go. When a waiter asks your party “Ci siamo?“, he’s checking if you’re ready to order, while if a teacher breaks off her lesson to ask the class “Ci siamo?“, she’s making sure that everyone’s following.

You can also use it as a statement: it’s like saying ‘Here we go’, ‘That’s settled’ or ‘All good!’

Think of ci siamo as a way to say you’ve arrived at a certain point, whether that’s a point of readiness (‘Good to go!’), a point of completion (‘All done!’), a point of understanding (‘Got it!’), or a point of departure (‘Here we go…’).

If you want to be really emphatic, you can say something like “ora sì che ci siamo” – ‘Now we’re talking!’ or ‘Now we’re really getting somewhere!’

Naturally, the opposite is non ci siamo – ‘that’s not it’, ‘this is going nowhere’, ‘that’s not on’.

You can even abbreviate it to NCS: ‘nope!’ or ‘nuh-uh!’

And if you’re closer to CS than NCS but not quite there yet, you can say ci siamo quasi: ‘we’re almost there’ or ‘we’re close’.

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Italian word of the day: Metà vs mezzo

It’s often the case in Italy that you’ll find several words that mean something very similar, and it’s not always easy to know which one is appropriate. Our new mini series looks at some of the most common word pairs, and sorts out which should be used and when.

Why do I need to know the difference between metà and mezzo?

Because you’ll need to use both of them in daily conversation if you live in Italy, but the difference in meaning isn’t always clear.

What’s the difference?

When you want to talk about ‘half’ of something in Italian, it may seem as though you have two choices.

Depending on what you’re talking about, you could reach for either metà or mezzo (or mezza, which we’ll come to later) but many language learners say they’re not always sure which one to use in certain situations.

Put simply, the difference between metà and mezzo is much the same as the difference between ‘half’ and ‘middle’ in English.

Metà: a half, as in one of two equal parts of something.

Mezzo: the middle, as in equally distant from two points.

For example:

Ha mangiato metà torta

He ate half of the cake

Facciamo a metà

Let’s split it (in half)

E’ sdraiato in mezzo alla strada

He’s lying in the middle of the street

Non penso che ti dovrebbe mettere in mezzo

I don’t think she should be putting you in the middle of this

READ ALSO: Come stai vs come va

But is anything in Italian ever really that simple?

There are some specific situations where the two words seem to be used interchangeably, or where it’s not clear why one is typically used and not the other.

Confusion arises particularly around telling the time in Italian, as you could say:

Sono le undici e mezzo

It’s half past eleven

Il mio treno arriva alle 5.40: vediamoci dieci minuti prima, alla mezza.

My train arrives at 5.40: let’s meet ten minutes before, at half past.

Why in this case aren’t we using metà for ‘half’? And why is it sometimes mezza rather than mezzo?

The English ‘half past’ doesn’t translate literally into Italian. Mezzo is used here instead, since we’re talking about the ‘middle of’ the hour, the point equally distant between two hours.

This might take some getting used to for English native speakers, but it is pretty logical.

As for why it’s mezza in the second example, this isn’t because it needs to agree with the gender of the noun in the sentence.

In fact, dictionaries tell us it’s always more correct to use mezzo regardless (although many Italians themselves find this rule confusing.)

But, in this case, as the language guardians at Italy’s Accademia della Crusca explain, mezza may (if you prefer) be used instead of mezzo when we already know the time, or at least the hour, being talked about.

So if you had earlier told someone an event would start at 8pm, but it’s now been delayed by half an hour, you could then say:

Comincerà alle otto e mezza

But if you’re inviting someone for the first time, you’d probably stick to:

Alle otto e mezzo

This can be a lot to remember when you’re in the middle of a conversation, but with practice you’ll soon get a feel for which word sounds right in which context.

Do you have an Italian word you’d like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.

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