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Why News Is Singular?

Maya Lin-Takahashi • • 6 min read
Why News Is Singular?

The word “news” in English is considered singular and uncountable. So we use the singular forms of verbs, like is and was: the news is on channel 5, the news was surprising. Don't use are or were. But a more common mistake is saying “a news.” With uncountable nouns

uncountable nouns
In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, or non-count noun is a noun with the syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete elements. ... Mass nouns have no concept of singular and plural, although in English they take singular verb forms.
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, we never use a or an.

Is news singular or plural?

We use the uncountable noun news to mean 'information or reports about recent events'. It takes a singular verb: The news is good about Mary. The doctors are very happy about her progress.

What's the singular for news?

News is not singular. News is not plural. News is an uncountable noun. In English you can create a countable noun phrase, using an uncountable noun.

Maya Lin-Takahashi
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Maya Lin-Takahashi

Maya is a hardware enthusiast who tests and reviews smart home devices, smartphones, wearables, and audio gear. She focuses on practical consumer value and build quality.