italki - In the Newspaper The usage of 'IN' in the phrase - 'News in the newspaper' , or in the sentence like

June

In the Newspaper The usage of 'IN' in the phrase - 'News in the newspaper' , or in the sentence like,'I've read something in the newspaper' - has puzzled me all the time. For me, I would think news are written/printed on the newspaper, not in the newspaper. Then I come to the realisation that news are not something like a cup sitting on the newspaper, and in this sense, news are in the newspaper. I'm fully aware of so called common sense but in different cultures common sense varies. What I'm doing is try to make sense things from other people's perspective. What do native English speakers think about 'news in newspapers? I'd appreciate it if I can hear from you.

Oct 5, 2015 12:01 AM

Corrections · 4

Although 'news' ends in 's' it is a singular noun. Thus it is 'the news is...' and not 'the news are...'

In the Newspaper

The usage of 'IN' in the phrase 'News in the newspaper', or in the a sentence like 'I've read something in the newspaper' has puzzled me all the for a long time. For me, I would think news is are written/printed on the newspaper, not in the newspaper.
Then I came to the realisation that news are is not something like a cup sitting on top of the newspaper, and so in this sense, the news is are in the newspaper.

I'm fully aware of so-called 'common sense' but in different cultures what is considered common sense varies. What I'm doing is trying to make sense of things from other people's perspective.

What do native English speakers think about 'news in newspapers? I'd appreciate it if I can hear from you.

October 5, 2015

Thank you James. 'News' is another word not making sense to me because I've learned that 'a piece of news' goes with 'is'. Well, as you've mentioned - usage may be the rule rather than logic - so I'll just try to remember the rule.

October 5, 2015

Prepositions in English are difficult. Usage may be the rule rather than logic. If you think of newspaper as a container for news then "in" is sensible - but news is on the internet - not in it. By the way "news" is a singular nouns - it is never plural. Zhu ni xingyun :-)

October 5, 2015

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