0

I am struggling, for some reason, something tells me this sentence doesn't sound that natural? Is there a better way to say the same or is this sentence of mine is fine?

Guy Verdi
  • 1
  • I think it is fine, and is commonly used. Re, alternative sentences, there can be many. – Ram Pillai Oct 21 '20 at 04:22
  • In idiomatic U.S. English, the likelier wording would be "It all began with some troubling news" or perhaps "It all began with a bit of troubling news." A native English speaker in the U.S. would be very unlikely to say "It all began with one troubling news." – Sven Yargs Oct 21 '20 at 04:27
  • “Appropriate” depends on context. – Lawrence Oct 21 '20 at 05:19
  • @SvenYargs The same applies in British English, if you wanted to restrict it to something specific you'd say "It all began with one piece of troubling news" or "...one item of troubling news"". News is a mass noun not a countable one, in fact it is less countable thanmass nouns like "sand" and "water" which are sometimes used as countable nouns. – BoldBen Oct 21 '20 at 06:40

1 Answers1

0

news is a mass noun, like air; it effectively has no singular or plural. You're looking for one piece of news, or some news. (If you say some news I will take it to mean one piece of news unless you say more.)

Anton Sherwood
  • 974
  • Thank you very much! Yes I would use that, but my text has this introduction and it should be specifically about 'one piece of news' but this wording seems too cumbersome to me. – Guy Verdi Oct 21 '20 at 04:27
  • Use “one news story” – Xanne Oct 21 '20 at 05:18
  • If I get news about my cousin from another cousin, I don't call it a “news story”. – Anton Sherwood Oct 21 '20 at 06:43
  • @Xanne Or "one news item". Guy's writing won't be accepted as correct by native speakers, even ones who don't know what a mass noun is, if he uses a mass noun as a count noun. – BoldBen Oct 21 '20 at 06:44
  • @boldben story is not a mass count noun – Xanne Oct 21 '20 at 11:29
  • @Xanne I'm not saying it is, yours is a perfectly good suggestion to which I am offering an alternative. The rest of my comment related to the OP's suggestion that the correct form of words is too cumbersome so he needs to simplify it by treating a mass noun as a count noun. Perhaps I shouldn't make one comment do two unrelated things. – BoldBen Oct 23 '20 at 06:00