news
part of speech
noun (news — uncountable)
meaning for a pupil
1) New information about something that has just happened. tree →
2) Reports of recent events on TV, radio, websites or in newspapers. tree →
3) (the news) A programme that reports recent events. tree →
4) (informal) Someone or something interesting or important, as in "That's news to me" (I didn't know). tree →
sense in the lessons
Used everywhere: "good news", "bad news", "the six o'clock news". In media lessons pupils learn to check news is true and to spot fake news. Phrases: "break the news" (tell someone bad news), "that's news to me", "no news is good news", "in the news", "fake news".
examples
- I have some good news: we're getting a puppy! tree →
- We watched the news after dinner. tree →
- Have you heard the news about our teacher? tree →
- The news is on at six o'clock. tree →
- She broke the news gently that the hamster had died. tree →
- "Mr Ellis is leaving?" "That's news to me!" tree →
- Not everything you read online is real news. tree →
- There was good news from Cincinnatus. tree →
note
Uncountable, takes a singular verb: "The news is good" (not "are"). Say "a piece of news" or "some news", never "a news". Though it ends in "s", it is not a plural.
In the corpora
- In Melbourne, Mum smiles at Dad over dinner and says, "We've got some news.
- Crime is on the news a lot, but most people live their whole lives without serious crime touching them.
- The news mostly reports the worst and most urgent events, because that is what feels important to report.
- Parents may switch off the news to protect children from scary pictures, and they worry about it themselves.
- A worried mind keeps going back to the same thing, so worried adults can be distracted until the news comes.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «news» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.