times of melancholy

Hello

Right now, owing to the outbreak of this virus, everyone is sad and hopeless in my country.

Can I use melancholy to describe this situation? Which one is correct?

These are times of melancholy in our country.

This is a time of melancholy in our country.

You can use it. I prefer the second bold sentence.

emsr2d2 said:

You can use it. I prefer the second bold sentence.

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I have seen both "there are times of" and "this is a time of". Is there a difference between them in terms of meaning and usage?

alpacinoutd said:

I have seen both "these are times of" and "this is a time of". Is there a difference between them in terms of meaning and usage?

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I'd use "These are times of ..." for longer periods of time - perhaps years. For this (hopefully) short-lived crisis, I'd stick with "This is a time of ...".

Any particular reason to use it as a noun? I prefer it as an adjective, where seems less overtly poetic or bombastic.

'These are melancholy times.'
"This is a melancholy time.'

I can't really see any difference in meaning or usage between the plural and singular forms of 'time' in this context.

I suppose you could argue that 'times' suggests a lengthier period, or a series of back-to-back troubled times, but that's probably stretching for a difference in this context.

emsr2d2 said:

For this (hopefully) short-lived crisis, I'd stick with "This is a time of ...".

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Amen to that.