It often happens that you read or hear phrases like “this has nothing to do with anything”. Yet, if you look at it carefully, there is something that is not convincing: why should it “get to the center”, that is, get to the center of something, a question that has no connection with the topic you are talking about? The correct form, in fact, is “has something to do with it”. And behind that seemingly insignificant apostrophe lies a more interesting grammatical story than it might seem: every time we write enters, we are using a linguistic form born from the contraction of “enters”; when we write centra, however, we are using the verb “centrare”. These are two expressions that seem almost the same to the ear, but which tell very different stories.
The reason is simple: “centrare” is not the word for the verb “centrare”, but is the contraction of the phrase “it has to do with it”. Originally, therefore, it was literally said «this thing enters into it», in the sense of “it has to do with it”, “it falls within the question”, “it connects to the topic we are talking about”. With the passage of time and due to the phonetic similarity with the third person singular of the present indicative of the verb centrare, Italian speakers have no longer been able to recognize the correct etymology of the expression, which today is not very clear.
“Center” has a completely different meaning. As already mentioned, it is the third person singular of the present indicative of the verb centare, which means “to hit the center”, “to put in the center” or “to hit the target”. For this reason, phrases like “you’ve nailed the problem” are perfectly correct.
To orient yourself, a very simple test is enough: if the expression can be replaced with “has to do with it”, then you need to write has to do with it. For example: “This question has nothing to do with it” is equivalent to saying “This question has nothing to do with the discussion.” If, however, we are talking about a target, a center or an objective achieved with precision, then the verb centrate comes into play: “You have hit the point”.
This mistake is so common because, in speech, it has an almost identical pronunciation. However, when we move on to writing, the difference becomes fundamental: a simple apostrophe changes not only the form of the word, but also its origin and its meaning. It’s one of those cases where grammar seems like a negligible detail, but in reality it completely changes the meaning of a sentence.
