In Countable nouns^x, Quoting^x

CalifJim wrote:1. <<the people of France sided with Sarkozy. That's because the French, who until now had used violent protests to counter government-led labor reforms, felt a heightened sense of crisis regarding the future of their country>>Past point of view: ... the people ......

I was merely quoting from my dictionary. It said that news is plural in form but always used as a singular. As Maple points out, another way of stating it is to say it's an uncountable noun. In any case, no matter what you call it, it must be used only with an s: news. Not a new. And...

Believer wrote: Hi, Yoong Liat I was looking at my Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner's English Dictionary for the word 'ash' and it had a notation among other notations something like this. Can you tell me if that tells anything about its countability. I am confused about the "also N in pl"...

Thank you. I see those words 'rain' and 'works' appear quite a lot in their countable forms but rarely I see the other majority?? of uncountable nouns appear as countable nouns so readily and accepted with open understanding. For example, I think, you will rarely or, in that matter, may never...