"Ci abbiamo creduto."
Translation:We have believed it.
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Ci can also mean "at it" like the "y" in French, just as ne means "of it" as in the French "en". It seems that credere takes the preposition a after it, also as in French, and therefore the sentence literally translates to "We have believed at it." The ci here replaces a phrase that starts with "a" that would make more sense in context.
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Especially since 2 previous sentences (both used ci siamo) asked us to use "ourselves", and marked "it" as incorrect!
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If "ci" was to be translated as "ourselves" then it would be reflexive pronouns and it would require "essere" not "avere" to make the sentence...I guess.
I think I have the answer for this, people who know are not explaining it well. "CI" is there for a reason and it doesn't mean "it". I'm still a learner but I'm pretty sure this is right.
In the case of "avere" {avere, ho, hai, abbiamo} it must have an object. In english we don't have to do this, this is why this is confusing. "Ci" is simply used as a placeholder for the object, it is "null" meaning it forces the verb to take no object.
"ci abbiamo creduto" means "we believed"
"lo abbiamo creduto" means "we believed it"
"non ci credo" means "I don't believe" or "I don't believe this"
"non lo credo" means "I don't believe it".
Also see http://www.wordreference.com/definizione/ci for definition in italian (this is case 3: pron. dimostr), technically "Ci" means "to this" but it's often implied in english.
Up vote this post if it helped you because I think this confuses a lot of people.
My year old post needs an update:
Credere is used intransitively meaning "believe":
Ci credo = credo a ciò = I believe this/it (ciò means this/that)
Gli credo = credo a lui = I believe him OR = credo a loro = I believe them
Le credo = credo a lei = I believe her
Ti credo = credo a te = I believe you
Credere is used transitively meaning "think+is":
Lo credo furbo = credo che lui sia furbo = I think he is clever
La credo più furba = credo che lei sia più furba = I think she is smarter / more clever
Li credo intelligenti = credo che loro siano intelligenti = I think they are intelligent
Ci crede felici = crede che siamo felici = he thinks we are happy
Lo credo = I think it is / I believe it is / I think he is / I believe he is
Ti credevo italiana = credevo che fossi italiana = I thought you were Italian (female).
Further information:
https://litalianoacasatua.com/lo-credo-gli-credo-le-credo-la-credo/
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Probably the underlying verb is crederci: http://www.wordreference.com/iten/crederci It is transitive, so comes with avere. Quite confusing though...
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Dick, the Italian, which we are given first here, can be translated as "we believed it". On the other hand, it can also be translated as "we have believed it". That is grammatical English and is used by native speakers when appropriate. For example:
"Will he run again in 2024? We have believed it up till now, but the recent poll numbers cast doubt on the matter".
VERBI PRONOMINALE - CREDERCI (To believe it) - https://www.dummies.com/article/academics-the-arts/language-language-arts/learning-languages/italian/conjugating-italian-verbs-with-ci-164192