In German, it's die Nachricht, but der Unterricht.

In English, you could say the many pens, but not the much water. But I guess in German you could: die vielen Stifte, die viel Wasser.

Inconsistencies.

"die viel Wasser" isn't German

Okay then that was a mistake. How do you say that?

Depends. What do you want to say?

much water or many different waters?

the great deal of water

I want the the.

das viele Wasser

Ah right. Silly mistake. Thanks.

The inconsistency in English is still there tho: you can't say the much water.

It's not an inconsistency. Grammar shouldn't be logical. But you get what I mean: asymmetry.

@RegDwigнt That's why Unicode distinguishes between \N{CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER A} and a, c and c, \N{CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER O} and o.

Correction: Grammar doesn't have to be logical

@Færd The vast tracts of land owned by the Prince of Wales pale before the unfathomed depths of the Ocean Sea, and both are like unto an immeasurably tiny mote in God's eye before the boundless expanse of outer space.

@FadedGiant That sounds very odd.

@Cerberus OK, so find my a definition of music that says "not rap or hiphop" ...

French has mandatory partitives all over the place. You can think of these X of Y appliances of mass nouns as not altogether alien to that.