News

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Liveinjapan

#441956 Tue, 13 Nov 07 03:19 AM

What is today's news?

What are today's news?

Are they both correct?

Thanks
LiJ

Liveinjapan

Joined on Sun, Feb 4 2007

Osaka, Japan

Senior Member (1,360)

Please feel free to correct any words I wrote.LiJ

Feebs11

#441963 Tue, 13 Nov 07 03:44 AM

News is a plural noun always used with a singular verb, meaning information about recent events or happenings, especially as reported by newspapers, periodicals, radio, or television.

Feebs11

Joined on Thu, Nov 23 2006

Pre Guru (4,599)

Verbs, Singular verbs, Plurals, Nouns

Liveinjapan

#441971 Tue, 13 Nov 07 04:05 AM

Thank you Feebs. I'll never say What are today's news?

Liveinjapan

Yoong Liat

#441982 Tue, 13 Nov 07 04:34 AM

Feebs11 wrote:
News is a plural noun always used with a singular verb, meaning information about recent events or happenings, especially as reported by newspapers, periodicals, radio, or television.

Hi Feebs

I was taught that 'news' is an uncountable noun.

Yoong Liat

Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006

Singapore

Forum Guru (5,423)

Yoong Liat

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Marius Hancu

#442067 Tue, 13 Nov 07 10:15 AM

Function:noun plural but singular or plural in construction

Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

Montreal, Canada

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Plurals, Constructions, Nouns

Yoong Liat

#442075 Tue, 13 Nov 07 10:34 AM

Marius Hancu wrote:
Function:noun plural but singular or plural in construction

Hi Marius

Reproduced below is the definition of 'news'. It is an uncountalbe noun.

Definition

news Show phonetics

noun [Uncountable]
1 information or reports about recent events:
That's the best (piece of) news I've heard for a long time!
We've had no news of them since they left for Australia.
Have you heard the news about Tina and Tom? They're getting divorced.
Do write and tell us all your news.
[+ that] The news that Madge had resigned took everyone by surprise.
We've got some good news for you. We're getting married.

Yoong Liat

Plurals, Constructions, Nouns, Phonetics

Marius Hancu

#442079 Tue, 13 Nov 07 10:44 AM

That's according to your source, not mine (M-W).

Old fashioned stuff. Things change. 10% is plural in usage on Google.

Marius Hancu

Plurals

Yoong Liat

#442083 Tue, 13 Nov 07 10:52 AM

Marius Hancu wrote:
That's according to your source, not mine (M-W).

Old fashioned stuff. Things change. 10% is plural in usage on Google.

Yes, I agree. Long, long ago, 'news' was plural'. However, we must keep up with the change. 'Forty' was spelled 'forty' many, many years ago. Do you want to spell 'forty' as 'fourty'?

Yoong Liat

Plurals

Yankee

#442088 Tue, 13 Nov 07 11:46 AM

The noun 'news' is plural in form but used with a singular verb. You cannot count 'news' unless you say something such as 'a piece of news'. The word 'news' alone can mean 'one piece of news' or 'many pieces of news'. However, even when it means "many pieces of news', it is used with a singular verb.

The only time I can think of when 'news' might be used with a plural verb is when 'news' is part of the name of an organization such as 'BBC News'. If you find "BBC News are" then you would be referring to the people who work at BBC News, or the rest of the sentence might go something like this: "Archived reports from BBC News are ..."

M-W online words it this way:
news
Function: noun plural but singular in construction

Cambridge categorizes 'news' as uncountable.

Both work for me.

Yankee

Joined on Sat, Apr 15 2006

Connecticut, USA

Pre Guru (3,928)

Amy "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain

Verbs, Singular verbs, Plurals, Nouns

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