So, following up from my last post, I want to highlight a very common phrase that uses "ci" in a way that you might not expect: "ce l'hai?". When I first heard this, it really threw me for a loop. "Hai", "you have". No problem. "l'hai", you have it, great, pretty straight forward. So, something like "you have it?", but what the heck is CI doing there??? (tiny little note for those wondering: ce/ci are the same word, ci changes to ce when there's another pronoun)
It turns out that you'll often hear "ci" used with "avere" just to make things easier to say. That is, apparently "l'hai" isn't meaty enough on its own, so it's filled out into "ce l'hai". The response, "si, l'ho" becomes "si, ce l'ho". Say those out loud a few times and you'll see that it really does make things feel more complete.
All of this is true even when not using "it" (>la/lo). For example, the phrase "I have some friends". Textbook style would be "ho degli amici", but it's VERY common to hear someone say "c'ho degli amici". In my opinion (and judging by the commonness of its usage, I'm not alone in this), it's just easier to say. If you're not too sharp on pronunciation yet, it's pronounced like we would say "cho" in english. And along the lines of pronunciation, I encourage you to work on getting the difficult "degli" correct... it's kind of like "de-yee". "Gli" is a tough sound, the best I can offer is to say "li" but with the tip of your tongue anchored at the edge of your bottom gum line. You'll feel the back of your tongue rise as you say it.
Note/Bonus Phrase: While "ce l'ho" and "ce l'hai" get used a lot to just say "I have it" and "You have it", it's very important to note a situation where that type of phrase means something very different: when it's followed by "con qualcuno". In this case it means "I/You have a problem with them". For example, if I say "Ce l'ho con Mario, non mi ha pagato oggi" it means "I have a real problem with Mario, he didn't pay me today".
Another example of this that you will certainly hear at some point is "Perchè ce l'hai con me?" meaning basically "why're you mad at me?" or "what'd I do?".
