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Sono le tre. Il tablet ce l'ha il professore.

Sono le tre. Il tablet ce l'ha il professore.
It is three o'clock. The professor has the tablet.
From Lesson 225:Emphatic possession (averci)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Sono le tre. Il tablet ce l'ha il professore.

Why does the sentence use ce l'ha instead of just ha?
This uses averci, a very common spoken form of avere. Italians add the pronoun ci to avere to emphasize possession. Because ci is placed right before another pronoun (lo for the tablet), it changes to ce.
What exactly does the l' stand for in ce l'ha?
It stands for lo, the direct object pronoun meaning "it". It refers back to il tablet, which is masculine singular. Because the verb ha begins with a silent "h" and a vowel sound, lo drops its "o" and combines with the verb to make l'ha.
Why is the word order Il tablet ce l'ha il professore instead of Il professore ha il tablet?
This reversed word order highlights the tablet as the main topic. When Italians move the object to the beginning of the sentence for emphasis, they almost always use this averci structure to repeat the object as a pronoun. It translates loosely to "The tablet, the professor has it."
Just to be sure, why is it Sono le tre and not È le tre?
In English we say "It is", but in Italian, time is based on the plural feminine word le ore (the hours). Because three is a plural number, the verb must also be the plural sono (they are). You only use è for singular times like l'una (one o'clock) or mezzogiorno (noon).

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