1. There was a sweetness and softness in the woman’s expression that I had never seen before.

Question

2. There was sweetness and softness in the woman’s expression that I had never seen before.
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Do we have to put 'a' before sweetness or not? Which one is grammatical?

Answer 1

[Amazon Music]
There Was A Sweetness
Frank Bango
From the Album Fugitive Girls
January 1, 2001

Answer 2

sweetness

[noncount]
1: the quality of tasting or smelling sweet
I like the sweetness of the sauce.
2: the quality of being kind or loving
the sweetness of his nature
I'll never forget the sweetness of her smile.
3: the quality of being pleasant or appealing
the sweetness of the melody

Answer 3

So if you think first there was sweetness, and then we evolved to like sweetness, you’ve got it backwards; that’s just wrong. It’s the other way round.

Answer 4

1. There was a sweetness and softness in the woman’s expression.
2. There was sweetness and softness in the woman’s expression.
3. There were sweetness and softness in the woman’s expression.
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Which one is grammatical? Do we have to use 'was' or 'were'?
Do we need to put 'a' as in Sentence 1 or not?

Answer 5

Since this is a poetic expression (in a song), I'd go with "a sweetness…"

Answer 6

Regarding the verb, I'd still stick with #1, but #3 is grammatically correct, too.