The word новость means a piece of news. In the plural it means news generically as well as shows that deal with the news. If you want to know if a person has heard a specific piece of news, you ask about it in the singular:

If you are talking about the news generically, you usually use the plural:

American students always pick up the Russian word класс right away because of the English word class which overlaps the Russian word in some meanings. And then immediately they try to say “I'm going to class” with the words «Я иду в класс». WRONG!!! Класс does NOT mean a class that you attend. It means the room in which a class is held. And specifically it means a classroom in a grade school or high school, not a university. Thus you could say «В класс вошла учительница» “The teacher entered the classroom.” But you can't use the word to say “I'm going to class” when you are a college student.

Класс actually has a plethora of meanings. It can mean class in the sense of first- or second-class accomodations:

The word can also mean the first years of school for a child:

The word can also be used in dividing social strata:

So how then do we say that we are going to a class? In Russian you have several slightly more specific options that are normally used. First off, if you are talking a grade school class, or a high school class, or a class outside the standard educational system, you can use the word урок lesson, which can include practical lessons like singing or playing an instrument:

If you are going to a class generically, and it's an academic adult class, and you don't need to specify the subject, then you can use the neuter plural word занятия. This is the most common way for a college or university student to say “I'm going to class”:

If you are going to a seminar or lecture class, then you can use those words, either specifying the subject or not:

There are two standard words in Russian for mother: мама, мать. The former is perfectly regular, and the latter is one of the most ancient words in the language and retains old quirks to it:

Although these words mean basically the same thing, they are stylistically different. A child would never say «Мать приготовила ужин» “Mother prepared dinner.” A child will only say «Мама приготовила ужин». Roughly speaking, children, young adults, and adults still living with their parents will usually refer to their parents as мама and папа. As they grow into later adulthood, people in their thirties and forties will refer to their parents as мать and отец. It just sounds more grown up.

Тhese are not hard and fast rules. Emotional closeness and gender influence things as well. A forty year old woman with a really close relationship to her mother may well call her мама. It is less probable that a forty year old man would do so, but it is still possible. And a twenty year old woman whose mother is a shrew may well refer to her as мать.

Sample sentences:

The generic Russian word for a piece of candy is конфета:

Bear in mind that in English the word candy is a mass noun, one which is mostly used in the singular to indicate indefinite quantities of candy. In that sense the Russians use конфеты in the plural. When discussing a single piece of candy, they use the singular:

The candy in Russia is simply wonderful. It's worth paying for a year of studying abroad just to go there and explore the enormous variety of tooth-rotting confections. And the names of some of the candies will bring a smile or smirk to the face of us Americans. Here are some of the ones that have brought a smile to my face:

One of my former students was recently in Russia and sent me the following blurb about the candy she had been buying in Russia:

В магазине «Сахарный Лев»:

• Конфеты «Парижель» — Made by the Ukrainian фабрика «АВК». Тhese are probably the best chocolates I've ever had. They're about 60% of the price of similar candies, which I'm thinking has something to do with the cost of labor in Ukraine. Весовые, 194,20 рублей/кг (280 grams, about 15 candies, for 54,38 rubles.)
• «Бабаевский» шоколад с кусочками вишни, 1 штука, 100г, 46,60 рублей

Here are some great descriptions for various Russian candies:

“Who said moo” candy

The word сегодня is an adverb that means today. It is quirky in that the г is actually pronounced like a в, so the word is usually pronounced something like [сиводня]. Sample sentences:

To express the idea of “this morning,” “this evening,” etc., сегодня combines with the words утром, днём, вечером, ночью:

Despite the fact that сегодня is an adverb, and thus theoretically it should not be able to be the object of a preposition, sometimes you find it as the object of the preposition на in the sense of “for”: