Professor Dave here, let’s check out verbi pronominali.
It’s now time to talk about two common verbs, volerci, and metterci.
These verbs are called “pronominali” because a pronoun, ci, can be found in the infinitives
which completely changes their meanings from the verbs volere and mettere.
Volerci and metterci usually refer to the amount of time or resources necessary to accomplish
a particular action.
An easier way to describe them would say that they both mean “to take” or “to be needed”.
The ci literally means “in it”.
But the construction of these verbs is a little peculiar.
Volerci uses only the third person singular and plural in order to indicate what is needed,
and the number changes according to the subject of the sentence.
The first and second persons will not be used with this verb, and the auxiliary verb will
always be essere.
To avoid mistakes, you can substitute the expressions è necessario, or sono necessari,
and see if they make sense.
Also, the use of double pronouns with these verbs is possible.
Here are some forms in various tenses.
So we can see that volerci is typically used for objects.
This also means “to take”, but it can be used personally, when it refers to people
performing an action.
Here are the forms for the present indicative.
Of course this can be conjugated in any tense, and is often used with phrases regarding time,
although sometimes it simply means “to put in it”, as in: Io non ci metto il pepe.
Metterci will use the auxiliary avere.
Now that we know how to use volerci and metterci, let’s check comprehension.