Word
C'è voluto molto tempo per imparare a frenare e ad accelerare.
Meaning
It took a lot of time to learn to brake and accelerate.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of C'è voluto molto tempo per imparare a frenare e ad accelerare.
e
and
il tempo
the time, the weather
molto
a lot of / much
per
for / in order to / because of
Questions & Answers about C'è voluto molto tempo per imparare a frenare e ad accelerare.
Why does this sentence use "c'è voluto" instead of a form of "avere"?
Why does the participle end in "-o" (voluto)?
With volerci, the thing that takes time is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence. Here, the subject is molto tempo (a lot of time). Since tempo is masculine and singular, the verb is singular (c'è) and the past participle ends in "-o" (voluto). If the subject were plural, like "two hours", it would change to ci sono volute due ore.
Why do we use per before imparare?
After expressions of time like c'è voluto molto tempo, we use the preposition per before the infinitive verb to express purpose or intention. It acts like "in order to" in English, so this literally means "it took a lot of time in order to learn."
Why is there an a before frenare?