Thread: that ommision

Originally Posted by maramaras

Hello, friends.
Could anybody correct my mistakes?:

1) I told her those Spanish words were badly written - I told her last week that those Spanish words were badly written. Both of these sentences are good. Remember that in English,proper names, including any country, such as Spain, and the language (Spanish) are always capitalized. (Spaniard is the word for a person from Spain and is also capitalized).

2) My History teacher was saying Greek gods (Greek is capitalized but gods is not capitilized since it is not a proper name) were powerful... - My History teacher was saying that the Greek gods we were studying in particular in those days, were as powerful as the ones in other mythologies. GOOD

3) My History teacher was saying Greek gods were powerful and that all Greek mythology was full of strong legends. GOOD

I have been reading about That usage in sentences and I could only understand that (?) when we use a time adverb between the main verb and the clause, we must add that. We should have to use that when the verb of the clause is long delayed. Finally, we should use that when its usage explains or clarifies the referred item.

May anybody help me with this, and give your own opinions for me to learn it?
Thanks in advance.

Hello maramaras I believe you have a very good understanding of the usage of that. I am not an English teacher so I can only offer my advice based on experience in speaking and writing English. The use of the word that can be slightly confusing but as a general rule when in doubt I always insert it. It can do no harm. To use your example: " My History teacher was saying Greek gods were powerful " could just as well be written "My History teacher was saying that Greek gods were powerful."

Good work!

I don't remember them exactly, but this is what I found :
THAT omission

Relative pronoun :
may be suppressed in a restrictive clause provided it does not serve as the subject of the main verb.
ex.: Elephants that love mice are very unusual.
(You can’t drop “that” here)


None-defining relative clauses :
The information in these clauses is not essential. It tells us more about someone or something, but it does not help us to identify them or it.
ex.: Elephants, which are large and grey, can sometimes be found in zoos. (This gives us some extra information about elephants - we are talking about all elephants, not just one type or group).

see the difference with : Elephants that love mice are very unusual. (This tells us which elephants we are talking about). (here you cannot leave “that” out because “the elephants” is subject).

1. In non-defining clauses, you cannot use ‘that’ instead of who, whom or which.
2. You cannot leave out the relative pronoun, even when it is the object of the verb in the relative clause:
He gave me the letter, which was in a blue envelope.
He gave me the letter, which I read immediately

Punctuation
Non-defining relative clauses are always separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. The commas have a similar function to brackets:
My friend John has just written a best-selling novel. (He went to the same school as me) > My friend John, who went to the same school as me, has just written a best-selling novel.


That gives you something to start with !
But, as usual, the theory makes it seem more difficult than it really is.
Anyway, as long as you're not sure, follow Vicente's advice.


PS. omission