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Ieri abbiamo visto un programma in televisione.

Ieri abbiamo visto un programma in televisione.
Yesterday we saw a program on television.
From Lesson 69:Irregular past participles (fatto, letto, preso)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Ieri abbiamo visto un programma in televisione.

Wait, what verb does visto come from?
It comes from vedere (to see). Vedere has an irregular past participle, so instead of following the normal rule and ending in "-uto", it becomes visto.
Why is it un programma? Doesn't the "-a" ending mean it should be feminine, like una programma?
Normally, yes! But programma is a common exception. Many Italian words ending in "-ma" that originally come from Greek are actually masculine. Because it's a masculine word starting with a single consonant, it takes the article un.
Why does the sentence use in televisione instead of a word for "on"?
Prepositions rarely translate directly between languages! While in English we watch things "on television," Italians watch things "in television." You will also hear people shorten this to in TV.
Why do we use abbiamo as the helper verb here instead of siamo?
To form the past tense, most verbs use avere (to have) as their helper verb. Because vedere (to see) is an action you do to something (you see a program), it uses avere. Abbiamo is the "we" form, giving us "we have seen."

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