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ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian expression of the day: ‘Ci ha messo una vita’

It won't take you a lifetime to master this simple phrase.

Published: 15 April 2022 16:24 CEST
Updated: 15 February 2023 15:14 CET
Italian expression of the day ci ha messo una vita
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

From completing a simple bureaucratic task at the comune to waiting for the bus, sometimes it feels like things can take forever in Italy.

Fittingly, there’s a phrase for that: Ci ha messo una vita (chee-ah-MESS-oh-oo-nah-VEE-ta). It translates literally as ‘it took a lifetime’, or as we’d be more likely to say in English, ‘it took forever’. 

L’autobus ci ha messo una vita ad arrivare.
The bus took forever to get here.

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Ci ha messo una vita can mean ‘it took forever’ or ‘it took him/her forever’ – the meaning is understood from context.

Ci ha messo una vita per chiederle di uscire.
It took him forever to ask her out.

Sono appena uscita dalla banca, ci ha messo una vita.
I just got out of the bank, it took forever.

The messo (past participle of mettere) stays the same regardless of the sentence subject – but you can conjugate the avere differently depending on your subject to say ‘it took me/you/them/us forever’.

Ci ho messo una vita a risparmiare per questa vacanza.
It took me forever to save up for this holiday.

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Ci hai messo una vita a fare la doccia.
You took forever in the shower.

Ci hanno messo una vita ad alzarsi.
It took them ages to get up.

You’ll notice that the phrase can be followed by either a or per directly before the verb, and the expression doesn’t just work with una vita – you can switch that out for any time period, from a minute to a week to a year.

Ho fatto una domanda al comune e ci hanno messo un mese a rispondere.
I wrote to the comune and it took them one month to get back to me.

Ci abbiamo messo una settimana per trovare le piastrelle che volevi.
It took us a week to find the tiles you wanted.

You’re not restricted to the past tense: ci mette (along with the slightly more common ci vuole) can mean ‘it takes’ when followed by any time duration, and can also be conjugated in the future tense.

Ha detto che ci mette un’ora per arrivare in centro con l’autobus.
She said it takes an hour to get to the centre by bus.

Ci metterai 5 minuti per riscaldare gli avanzi che ti ho lasciato in frigorifero.
It’ll take you 5 minutes to heat up the leftovers I left in the fridge for you.

Have a go at mastering all the different variations of this phrase – we bet it won’t take you long!

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

Member comments

  1. Living in Italy, alas, is not in my future. However, speaking Italian fluidly is a goal I’m getting ever closer to, which is why I love the Italian Word of the Day. It’s always so useful and usually something that doesn’t crop up in all the other tools I’m using to learn this gorgeous language.

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ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian word of the day: ‘Bega’

The meaning of this Italian word is rarely disputed.

Published: 9 September 2024 08:51 CEST
Italian word of the day: ‘Bega’

If you’ve spent some time in Italy, especially in the north of the country, you may have heard Italian speakers saying something similar to the English word ‘beggar’. 

The Italian word bega (hear it pronounced here) means a squabble, a quarrel or an argument. It’s a synonym of litigio or lite.

Abbiamo avuto una bega e non siamo più amici.

We had an argument and we’re no longer friends.

Lei e suo marito sono nel mezzo di una bega.

She and her husband are in the middle of an argument.

In its plural form, the noun transforms into beghe (hear it pronounced here).

Non voglio beghe.

I don’t want any arguments.

Vecchie beghe familiari rendono il rapporto difficile.

Old family disputes make the relationship very difficult.

As a secondary meaning, you can also use bega to say ‘hassle’ or ‘bother’ .

Questo scioglilingua è una bega da dire.

This tongue twister is a hassle to say.

È una bega lavorare con persone stupide.

It’s a bother to work with stupid people.

As with a lot of Italian nouns, bega has a corresponding verb: begare, meaning ‘to argue’ or ‘to have an argument’. 

Stiamo begando.

We are arguing.

However, this is rarely used, with most native speaker preferring to add the verb avere in front of the noun bega.

Hanno avuto una bega sulla politica.

They had an argument about politics.

Next time you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of arguing with someone, or something is really bothering you, you may take comfort in the fact that you have a new Italian word to describe what’s going on. 

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

Don’t miss any of our Italian words and expressions of the day by downloading our app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Italian Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button.

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