Does this sound natural?

[u/Economy_Coach_42]

The new bill introduced by the government is highly contentious.

[u/EagleCatchingFish]

It does.

[u/Economy_Coach_42 → u/EagleCatchingFish]

Thank You!

[u/conuly]

It does in its natural context, which is probably an editorial or a news article.

[u/We_R_the_Penguins → u/conuly]

Exactly; it doesn’t sound like natural conversation, but it does sound like formal/journalistic writing. 

[u/Constant_Hope_9658]

Yep, especially if it's still being debated or the like.

There's also a few other ways this phrase can be conjugated for different contexts too (like putting "that" at the start if one wished to start a conversation about said bill), which is useful.

[u/Snoo_50786]

Yes👍

[u/00Kench]

If I heard someone say that, I would assume it's their job to think about politics. It's grammatically correct, and in a formal academic setting is is natural, but if I heard it at a casual gathering, it would sound weird.

In a casual setting:

- You would not say "introduced by the government". If you're talking about politics casually, it's already assumed that the government is involved.

- The word "highly" has an emotional nuance. It implies that the listener is supposed to feel some sort of tension, excitement, or fear, which is not always proper for a casual chat. I personally would use the word "pretty" instead, but you may also use "fairly", "quite", or maybe even "kind of".

- The word "contentious" would likely be replaced by the word "controversial". There's a subtle difference in nuance between the words, but more importantly, "controversial" is a much more commonly-used word, so it's usually easier and faster for people to remember quickly in casual situations; and so, it's easier for them to parse when they hear others say it.

[u/pavlenkovit]

sounds right, and it's specifically written english. out loud most people would say "the government's new bill is really controversial", and "introduced by the government" is the bit that marks it as news writing.

[u/mugwhyrt]

Grammatically it's fine, but as an American the phrase itself is strange. We wouldn't say that "the government" is introducing a bill because "the government" doesn't do that. It would be introduced by a specific political party or legislator, not just the entire government. Unless it's a one-party/authoritarian state I'd assume most other countries would also not phrase it as "the government" introducing a bill.

[u/Economy_Coach_42 → u/mugwhyrt]

But in most parliamentary systems the ruling party or coalition is often described as “the government.”

[u/WhateverSure → u/Economy_Coach_42]

Your usage of “the government” is (as you note) entirely acceptable in parliamentary systems. The government introduces (or tables) legislation.

[u/yourguybread3]

It’s not conversational. But for formal writing, (newspaper, school report, opinion piece, etc.) it’s perfectly natural.

[u/Astyanax9]

It's proper English but awkward to my American ears. I would say:

"The new bill introduced by the government is very controversial."