You may not have heard of it, but entrarci is a very useful Italian verb.
It consists of the verb entrare ('to enter') plus the reflexive pronoun ci and literally means 'to go in there'.
It's pronounced ent-rar-chee, with a slight stress on the second syllable (hear it here).
You can use it literally:
Mi ha detto che non devo entrarci.
He told me I don't need to go in there.
But figuratively it can also mean 'to get involved', much as we might say in English: 'you don't want to go there'.
Non voglio entrarci in questa faccenda.
I don't want to get involved in this business.
The form c'entra means the same: being involved or dealing with someone or something. But it's more useful in the negative: non c'entra.
This means 'that doesn't come into [something]' or 'that has nothing to do with [something]'.
Quello che è successo l'anno scorso non c'entra con il nostro discorso; dobbiamo pianificare per il futuro.
What happened last year has nothing to do with our discussion; we need to plan for the future.
It can also be used as a question:
Che c’entra?
What's that got to do with it?
Che c’entri tu?
What’s it to you?
This is a thought you may have had when dealing with gossiping neighbours or over-involved family members. Whether you want to actually say it out loud to them or not is another question.
If you want to question or cast doubt over the relevance of something, you can usually put the noun after c'entra. If the noun is plural, use c'entrano.
È troppo caro.
Che c’entrano i soldi? Pago io!
It’s too expensive.
Forget money. I’m paying!
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