Social Issues
Build your Italian vocabulary for social issues: words for staying healthy, and words for charity and voluntary work, each shown with its English meaning.
Practise it before the paper, not after
Free, interactive practice on the words and structures the examiner keeps asking for.
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Social issues in Italian
This module builds your Italian vocabulary for social issues, such as staying healthy and helping other people. Each Italian word is shown with its English meaning, so you can learn to recognise it. These words help you talk about health, lifestyle and giving to others.
Diet, charity and wellbeing in Italian
Start with four common words. Each Italian word is shown with its English meaning.
Health or helping?
It helps to sort the words into staying healthy and helping others.
A few more words
Three more useful words: povertà means poverty, senzatetto means a homeless person, and importante means important. When you talk about a social issue, try to add an opinion word such as importante.
Match the word
- salute
- dieta
- fumare
- sport
- Health
- A diet
- To smoke
- Sport
Which is health?
Which Italian word means health?
- salute
- dieta
- sport
- fumare
Match more words
- volontariato
- beneficenza
- povertà
- aiutare
- Voluntary work
- Charity
- Poverty
- To help
Ways to stay healthy
Which TWO Italian words are about staying healthy? Choose all that apply.
- dieta
- sport
- beneficenza
- volontariato
Describe a good lifestyle
Order these to describe a healthy and caring lifestyle: first a health word, then an activity, then a way to help others, then an opinion.
- salute
- sport
- volontariato
- importante
Health and volunteering in Italian
The Italian word for health is _____. To stay well you should follow a good _____ and do _____. Giving time to help others without pay is called _____. Giving money to a good cause is _____.
Spot the helping words
Tap the TWO words about helping other people.
- volontariato
- beneficenza
- dieta
- sport
Never leave the opinion without a reason, in Italian
The social-issue words become sentences with è (is), and a grade-9 answer never states a view without a reason attached: - La salute è importante = "health is important". Italian keeps la in front of salute where English drops it, and è links the two halves. - Mi piace il volontariato perché aiuta = "I like volunteering because it helps". Mi piace is "I like", literally "it is pleasing to me". perché (because) then joins the reason, which is what lifts the mark.
Attach a reason, in Italian
A grade-9 answer attaches a reason to the opinion. Which of these does that?
- Mi piace il volontariato perché aiuta
- Mi piace il volontariato
- La salute è importante
- Mi piace volontariato perché aiuta
Which is to smoke?
Which Italian word means to smoke?
- fumare
- aiutare
- dieta
- salute
Choose the word
For each meaning, choose the correct Italian word.
- You want the word for giving time to help others without being paid. Which word?
- You want the word for the food you eat to stay healthy. Which word?
- You want the word for a person who has no home. Which word?
Write about a social issue
Write two or three sentences in Italian about a social issue, such as healthy living or helping others.
- Name a way to stay healthy
- Name a way to help other people
- Give your opinion using a word like importante