Uncountable plural nouns

Question

Hello,Words like: jeans, scissors, glasses, groceries and news are classified as uncountable nouns even though they take a plural form.Most of them agree with a plural verb and use a plural pronoun .Why is  news an exception which takes a singular verb and is referred to using it and not they?(I can see how the others have a sense of plurality groceries implies many items, but news seems to be more abstract).

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

CarewWhy is news an exception which takes a singular verb and is referred to using it and not they?

Indeed. Why, why, why?

Many questions, especially with regard to language, have no answers. At least not answers that are logical explanations. But I suppose that's to be expected. Language is not mathematics.

Whenever you run across exceptions like this, the "answer", if it can be called that, is found in history (a messy thing, that). At some point in time, 'news' was used with a singular verb. People liked it. They copied it. Everybody liked it. They never listened to the mathematicians who said that wasn't logical, and that they should not do that. Almost everybody said, "We like it like this, and this is how we're going to do it". And the few left, who wanted to control everything that people said, were outvoted. So sad. Now students of English have to scratch their heads and wonder why English has so many exceptions.

So "Why exceptions?" Answer: History.

CJ

AlpheccaStars · Answer

New is an adjective, so "news" is not the plural form of "new."

It comes from the French nouvelles, and has been considered singular for centuries.

The news is not good.
No news is good news.

Anonymous · Answer

The OED shows the original spelling "newesse" in Middle English. They say it was formed on a French lexical item. The "esse" seems to be the one in "finesse" and "largesse", after the French, something like our "ness". They go on to say that etymologically it is a "Specific use of plural of new, n." The long-dead grammar of Old English put an "s" on it "in partitive genitive singular as postmodifier", and it stuck. In other words, laymen like me have no business even thinking about it. The history of words is fascinating but all too often way over my head, and this "s" on "news" is a prime example. Even so, I feel I should point out that there are plenty of other words in "-s" that aren't plural.

Uncountable plural nouns

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