In the Beginners lesson Lei chi è? Parte 6* is the sentence:
“Forse suo fratello ce l’ha con lei per qualche ragione.”
In the English translation, the sentence is this:
“Maybe your brother is angry with you for some reason.”
I do not understand how the phrase “ce l’ha con lei” means “is angry with you.” I do understand that this must be an idiom, but could someone explain this phrase more fully to me?
Thank you.
*There are two versions of this lesson. The lesson I am referring to is “Una versione “più italiana” della serie “Who is She?”, riscritta da Michele (mikebond).” In the other version of this lesson, the sentence I’m asking about reads:
“Forse suo fratello è arrabbiato con lei per qualche ragione.”
I can’t really explain the idiom to you, but it seems like an understandable shortening of something like "to have [problems, words, a fight] with someone. An Italian would have to weigh in on this one, but I did find this in my dictionary:
Thank you very much, greg. Your response helped me a good deal and the word reference forum was interesting. I feel I do have a better understanding of the phrase now.
One question - in the phrase you quoted from your dictionary is the word “qicu” which looks like a Sicilian word rather than an Italian one. Is that possible?