Thread: The news

A correspondent on BBC World asked a question “How is the news being received in Iraq?” Does it mean that “the news” is singular or I didn't understand something?

Yes, it is singular. I also was kind of surprised when I learned that and probably even now I haven't quite got used to it.

No, it's not really singular. It's uncountable. The use of 'the' doesn't tell you whether it's singular or plural; you can say 'the apples' just as easily as you can say 'the apple'.

It's like water, or salt (and no, don't tell me about countable context for water please, I know already..)

To make it countable, use 'piece'.
I heard a bad piece of news today.

or you can use some, as you can with any uncountable noun:

some news
some water
some information

Actually, come to think of it, 'some news' is much more common than 'a piece of news', if that matters.

The "blues" is also singular (for the musical genre), but I think it is plural when meaning depressed.

The Blues was developed in New Orleans

Now I'm confused. "How is the news being recieved in Iraq?" Is = singular. If "news" were plural, it would be "How are the news being recieved in Iraq" which sounds completely aweful. Or am I missing something?

news is actully plural, the way you use it. It all depends on how you use it.

emka71aln, is English your second Language? Where are you from? I thought you were a native English speaker , sorry I was confused...

News is actually plural, yes. And most ways Ive seen it, its always used this way. (not usually singular)

Originally Posted by Евгения(Женя)

emka71aln, is English your second Language? Where are you from? I thought you were a native English speaker , sorry I was confused...

News is actually plural, yes. And most ways Ive seen it, its always used this way. (not usually singular)

yea, its confusing.
ive heard people say "I've got some news" which is ususally singular i dont know..all i know is, its plural!

Yeah, I'm a native English speaker (American English). I'm just no good at grammar and very easily confused. I know how I say things, and rarely think about why.

Ding ding ding! Waxwing gets the prize.

But please remember, however, that "the media"= plural. As in, "The media are President Bush's buttmonkeys." This is one of the most tragically misused words in the English language. And anyone who defends the use of "media" with a singular verb is a hoser, so don't even start

Originally Posted by Линдзи

Ding ding ding! Waxwing gets the prize.
But please remember, however, that "the media"= plural. As in, "The media are President Bush's buttmonkeys." This is one of the most tragically misused words in the English language. And anyone who defends the use of "media" with a singular verb is a hoser, so don't even start

Don't forget "data". Each time I hear "data is" I want to kill the idiot.

Originally Posted by begemot

The "blues" is also singular (for the musical genre), but I think it is plural when meaning depressed.

The Blues was developed in New Orleans

(serious title music.. cut to over-coiffeured woman ..)

Dobry vecher. Here is the blues.
or
Dobry vecher. Here are the blues.



Good lord, I'm easily amused, eh?

I got the blues when I heard the news about the death of the blues.

Thanks, now when I will use word “news” I will think about Russian word “кирпич.” Grammatically it is used as a singular noun but actually it is plural.

“Я купил немного кирпича” means not “I've bought a piece of brick” but “I've bought a number of bricks”

pookie123 wrote:

news is actully plural, the way you use it. It all depends on how you use it.

See ladies, it's not how much of it there is, it's how you use it...

[quote=bad manners]

Originally Posted by "Линдзи":1a965e8u

But please remember, however, that "the media"= plural. As in, "The media are President Bush's buttmonkeys." This is one of the most tragically misused words in the English language. And anyone who defends the use of "media" with a singular verb is a hoser, so don't even start

Don't forget "data". Each time I hear "data is" I want to kill the idiot.[/quote:1a965e8u]

OH, I KNOW. Idiots! Idiots! Datum-Data! Medium-Media! Aagh!

Wow, this is so weird. I'm bonding with bad manners.

Clearly, shared hatred of the misuse of latinate words is the key to international cooperation.

Well, Lindzi old pal, do you say 'musea' instead of 'museums'? Or 'fora' instead of 'forums'? Wouldn't think so... So what's the difference between that and using 'data' and 'media' as singular nouns?

Originally Posted by Jasper May

Well, Lindzi old pal, do you say 'musea' instead of 'museums'? Or 'fora' instead of 'forums'? Wouldn't think so... So what's the difference between that and using 'data' and 'media' as singular nouns?

I do not know about you, but I say "matrices", "indices","phenomena", "formulae" and so on. Some Latin words are simply less bastardized than the others.

Originally Posted by Jasper May

Well, Lindzi old pal, do you say 'musea' instead of 'museums'? Or 'fora' instead of 'forums'? Wouldn't think so... So what's the difference between that and using 'data' and 'media' as singular nouns?

I can cope with someone saying, say, "formulas," although it grates on my ears. "Mediums" is fine (although "datums" just sounds idiotic). Pluralizing words according to standard English practices is one thing, misusing an already pluraized word is quite another. Using "media" or "data" as a singular noun is simply wrong, because they are not singular, they are already plural, and singular forms of each verb exist. Would you say "the matricies is entered into the computer" or "the formulae is hard to solve?" No. 'cuz it's WRONGO. Same with "media" and "data."

Well, the word "news" is singular indeed (at least in all gramar books), only not all English-speaking people know it... I remember I read a story of Mark Twain about a provoncial newspaper who was also astonished at this fact, when he known it should be "the news is..." and not "the news are...".
By he way, the countable and uncountable nouns may be different in different languages, for example "advice". And this peculiar usage: I want to give you a piece of advice.