Breakdown of Ci abbiamo messo mille ore per inventare questo elettrodomestico ipertecnologico!
questo
this (masculine)
per
for / in order to / because of
l'ora
the hour (f)
inventare
to invent
metterci
to take (time, personal)
mille
one thousand
l'elettrodomestico
the home appliance (m)
ipertecnologico
ultra-technological
Questions & Answers about Ci abbiamo messo mille ore per inventare questo elettrodomestico ipertecnologico!
What does the prefix iper- add to tecnologico in this sentence?
Could we have used stra- instead of iper- here, such as stratecnologico?
You could, but it changes the tone. While stra-, arci-, and iper- all express absolute excess, iper- sounds more precise and is the natural choice for tech and science words. Stra- is highly colloquial and mostly used with everyday adjectives like strapieno (completely full) or strabello (gorgeous). Saying stratecnologico would sound very informal.
Why does the sentence use Ci abbiamo messo instead of Ci sono volute?
Both metterci and volerci express how much time is needed for something, but they are structured differently. Volerci is impersonal, uses the auxiliary verb essere, and agrees with the time itself (so you would say Ci sono volute mille ore). Metterci focuses on the specific people who spent the time, uses the auxiliary avere, and conjugates to the subject. Here, abbiamo messo emphasizes the effort that we specifically put into the invention.
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