Did you hear the news?
Hai sentito le notizie?
- Discuss what you saw on television or heard on the radio.
- Time expressions for recent events.
- Get to know the popular media stations in your host country.
This lesson focuses on discussing recent news in Italian, introducing useful vocabulary like notizia (news), telegiornale (news broadcast), and stazione radio (radio station). Learn to describe when and where you heard news, using verbs such as ascoltare (to listen) and guardare (to watch).
Vocabulary (17) Share Copied!
Exercises Share Copied!
These exercises can be done together during conversation lessons or as homework.
Esercizio 1: Conversation exercise
Istruzione:
- Describe what happened on the news. (Describe what happened on the news.)
- Describe the different media types you see. (Describe the different media types you see.)
- Do you read or watch the news regularly? (Do you read or watch the news regularly?)
Teaching guidelines +/- 10 minutes
Example phrases:
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A Lussemburgo, il governo ha avuto un incontro. Una donna ha tenuto un discorso. In Luxembourg, the government had a meeting. A woman gave a speech. |
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C'è stata una grande protesta a Parigi. Autobus e auto non potevano più circolare. There was a big protest in Paris. Busses and cars could not drive anmore. |
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Vedo brevi video e immagini sulle notizie sui social media. I see short videos and pictures about the news on social media. |
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Vedo le notizie in televisione. I see the news on the television. |
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Ho letto le notizie su un sito web. I read the news on a website. |
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Guardo il telegiornale ogni sera. I watch the news every night. |
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Exercise 2: Dialogue Cards
Instruction: Select a situation and practice the conversation with your teacher or fellow students.
Exercise 3: Multiple Choice
Instruction: Choose the correct solution
1. Ieri ___ guardato il telegiornale e ho sentito una notizia interessante.
(Yesterday ___ watched the news and heard an interesting piece of information.)2. Il presentatore ___ spiegato la situazione con chiarezza.
(The presenter ___ explained the situation clearly.)3. Oggi ___ fatto una chiamata per informarmi sulle ultime notizie.
(Today ___ made a call to find out about the latest news.)4. Durante il fine settimana ___ navigato su Internet per cercare nuovi programmi televisivi.
(During the weekend ___ surfed the Internet to look for new TV shows.)Exercise 4: Did you hear the news?
Instruction:
Verb Tables
Navigare - Surfing
Imperfetto
- io navigavo
- tu navigavi
- lui/lei navigava
- noi navigavamo
- voi navigavate
- loro navigavano
Leggere - Read
Passato prossimo
- io ho letto
- tu hai letto
- lui/lei ha letto
- noi abbiamo letto
- voi avete letto
- loro hanno letto
Spiegare - Explain
Passato prossimo
- io ho spiegato
- tu hai spiegato
- lui/lei ha spiegato
- noi abbiamo spiegato
- voi avete spiegato
- loro hanno spiegato
Chiamare - Call
Passato prossimo
- io ho chiamato
- tu hai chiamato
- lui/lei ha chiamato
- noi abbiamo chiamato
- voi avete chiamato
- loro hanno chiamato
Vedere - See
Trapassato prossimo
- io avevo visto
- tu avevi visto
- lui/lei aveva visto
- noi avevamo visto
- voi avevate visto
- loro avevano visto
Preoccupare - Worry
Presente
- io preoccupo
- tu preoccupi
- lui/lei preoccupa
- noi preoccupiamo
- voi preoccupate
- loro preoccupano
Guardare - Watch
Passato prossimo
- io ho guardato
- tu hai guardato
- lui/lei ha guardato
- noi abbiamo guardato
- voi avete guardato
- loro hanno guardato
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Lesson Overview: Talking About Recent News in Italian
This A2-level lesson focuses on discussing recent news heard through various media like radio and television. It helps learners practice everyday conversations related to current events using practical vocabulary and expressions framed in natural dialogue settings such as the office coffee break, after-work bar chats, or supermarket queues.
Key Lesson Content
- Dialogue Practice: Three sets of dialogues simulate real-life encounters where speakers talk about news they heard recently, mentioning times, media sources, and sharing their opinions.
- Verb Conjugation Exercises: Multiple-choice activities focus on understanding and using the passato prossimo (present perfect) tense with auxiliary verbs, essential for narrating past events clearly.
- Short Story Task: A mini story revisiting a typical news scenario helps reinforce verb tenses (imperfetto, passato prossimo, trapassato prossimo) and vocabulary related to media and communication.
Useful Vocabulary and Expressions
- Notizia — news
- Telegiornale — TV news program
- Stazione radio — radio station
- Ho sentito / Ho visto — I heard / I saw
- Poco fa — a little while ago
- Ieri sera, stamattina — last night, this morning
- Hanno parlato di... — they talked about...
Grammar Focus: Talking About Past Events
This lesson centers on the passato prossimo tense, used to describe actions completed in the recent past. Learners practice forming sentences with auxiliary verbs avere and essere, and recognize expressions of time that help anchor events in context.
Example: Ho guardato il telegiornale alle otto. (I watched the news at eight.)
Differences and Useful Phrases Compared to English
Unlike English, Italian frequently uses specific past tenses like passato prossimo for recently completed actions and imperfetto for ongoing or descriptive past actions. Time expressions, such as ieri (yesterday) and poco fa (a little while ago), are often placed at the beginning or end of sentences to clarify timing.
Common phrases include:
- Hai sentito la notizia? — Did you hear the news?
- Ne hanno parlato anche alla radio. — They also talked about it on the radio.
- Quando è successo? — When did it happen?
- Ho chiamato mia sorella per raccontarle la notizia. — I called my sister to tell her the news.
Mastering these expressions helps you discuss everyday news naturally and comfortably in Italian.
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