Ruby, the two sentences a mistake that is very often made by Chinese students. Please note that "these days" does not mean "recently". It means "nowadays", used when we are comparing and contrasting two practices, one past and one present. Example: These days, he does not talk to me any more. He is a high official now. He has become very snobbish. We were best friends at university. I understand why Chinese students make this mistake - it is so widespread that it has reached epidemic proportions. They think it means 这些天. It does not. It means 今时不比往日 or 今非昔比.

Regarding your sentences, please note the following. 1. Yes, the others are right. News is uncountable. 2. It is always "quite a [noun]" and never "a quite...". 3. You can say "It's quite big news these few days" or "It's quite big news at present." 4. If you say "It's quite big news these days", it means something different. Example: "Nobody paid any attention to investors from that Asian country ten years ago, but these days it's quite big news" meaning they are worth looking at or they are in vogue (compared to their previous modest or neglected status).

I must disagree. neither sound correct to me. "It's quite big news these days." is, to me correct. You do not need to insert the indefinite article "a". consider... It's a quite big fish or It's quite a big salt. It has something to do with the mass noun news. consider... It's quite a big news story/event/outlet/ these days... This sounds fine. Hope this helps, Nick

Hi, to me both sound incorrect. I would say: "It's quiet the big news these days".

The most natural thing to say, Ruby, would be, "It's appearing in all the headlines".