Breakdown of Ci arrampichiamo sulla roccia grande.
grande
big
su
on, about
arrampicarsi
to climb
la roccia
the rock
Questions & Answers about Ci arrampichiamo sulla roccia grande.
Why is there a ci at the beginning of the sentence? Does it mean 'there'?
In this case, ci doesn't mean 'there'. It is the reflexive pronoun for 'we' or 'ourselves' belonging to the reflexive verb arrampicarsi (to climb). In Italian, climbing is expressed as a reflexive action, so 'we climb' is literally formatted as 'we climb ourselves'.
How is sulla formed, and why use it instead of just su?
Why does an 'h' appear in arrampichiamo?
The infinitive verb is arrampicarsi. To say 'we climb', you add the -iamo ending to the root. Because the letter 'c' followed by an 'i' usually makes a soft 'ch' sound in Italian, an 'h' is added to keep the hard 'k' sound of the original verb.
Why is grande placed after roccia rather than before it?
In Italian, descriptive adjectives typically go right after the noun they modify. While grande can sometimes go before a noun to mean 'great' or 'important', placing it after roccia focuses purely on its physical size: it is just a big rock.