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Usage of the word news (It's a terrible news vs. It's terrible news)



 
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Teaching English (pronunciation problem) | Difficult preposition "under"
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Usage of the word news (It's a terrible news vs. It's terrible news) #1 (permalink) Wed Jan 02, 2008 17:05 pm   Usage of the word news (It's a terrible news vs. It's terrible news)
 

Hi,

Can we say this? It's a terrible news.

or we must say: It's terrible news.

or: These are terrible news. (with plural, even if I'm thinking of just one piece of news).

thanks
Liza
I'm here quite often ;-)


Joined: 20 Feb 2007
Posts: 113

Usage of the word news (It's a terrible news vs. It's terrible news) #2 (permalink) Wed Jan 02, 2008 23:00 pm   Usage of the word news (It's a terrible news vs. It's terrible news)
 

"News" is an uncountable noun, so we can never say "a news", and you can't use a plural verb with the word.

You can say, "This is a terrible piece of news."
Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)


Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 5332
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA

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Usage of the word news (It's a terrible news vs. It's terrible news) #3 (permalink) Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:34 am   Usage of the word news (It's a terrible news vs. It's terrible news)
 

Jamie (K) wrote:
"News" is an uncountable noun, so we can never say "a news", and you can't use a plural verb with the word.

You can say, "This is a terrible piece of news."


Dear Jamie,

Thanks for your answer again.
So we always have to add ' a piece of'? There is no way to avoid it?
e.g.: 'It's terrible news' - is not correct at all?

thanks
Liza
I'm here quite often ;-)


Joined: 20 Feb 2007
Posts: 113

Usage of the word news (It's a terrible news vs. It's terrible news) #4 (permalink) Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:59 am   Usage of the word news (It's a terrible news vs. It's terrible news)
 

Liza wrote:
So we always have to add ' a piece of'? There is no way to avoid it?
e.g.: 'It's terrible news' - is not correct at all?

"It's terrible news," is perfectly correct, and we say it most of the time. However, many foreigners feel a need to refer to one specific item of news, but it's ungrammatical to say "a news". In those situations we have to say "piece of news".
Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)


Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 5332
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA

Usage of the word news (It's a terrible news vs. It's terrible news) #5 (permalink) Thu Jan 03, 2008 13:58 pm   Usage of the word news (It's a terrible news vs. It's terrible news)
 

.
Just as a summary for what Jamie has already written, here are some direct responses to your original questions (inside the quote):
Liza wrote:
Can we say this? It's a terrible news. No

or we must say: It's terrible news. Yes

or: These are terrible news. No (with plural, even if I'm thinking of just one piece of news).
But you can say "This/that is terrible news".

You can also say "a little bit of news", "some news", "a lot of news", "not much news", "any news".

You cannot say "many news".

Yankee
I'm a Communicator ;-)


Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 8265
Location: USA

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