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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Relative clause omissions

Omission of "that" is common in spoken English in such constructions as these:

the bloke came to stay with us was from Africa

we had this African bloke came to stay

there a guy in our class has a an ¡Phone

Does such omission commonly occur in written English?
  

Top answer

Typo edit: <there a guy in our class has a an ¡Phone> there a guy in our class has an ¡Phone Aplogies.

  • Typo edit: <there a guy in our class has a an ¡Phone> there a guy in our class has an ¡Phone Aplogies.
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13 Answers
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Typo edit:

<there a guy in our class has a an ¡Phone>

there a guy in our class has an ¡Phone

Aplogies.
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You can omit "who/which/that" when it stands for the object, for instance

1 The bloke (that) I spoke to was from Africa.
2 The guy (that) I saw in our class has an iPhone.

But if "who/which/that" stands for the subject, you cannot omit it in standard English.

3 The bloke who came to stay with us was from Africa.
4 There is a guy in our class who has an iPhone.
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<Your examples are from a dialect where this is possible.>

I think they are standard spoken English.
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I have never heard anything like that in American English (yet). As Alienvoord says, that's problably a feature of some dialects... But I don't know which dialects... Where could I hear something like that, Alienvoord?
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I thought it was found in the UK, but don't quote me. MWDEU says it used to be common (for instance Shakespeare) but is now only found when introduced by "it is" or "there are". But the most recent example is from 100 years ago:

but the business of beatuy - there is no person at all knows what that is - James Stephens, 1912
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AlienvoordBut if "who/which/that" stands for the subject, you cannot omit it in standard English.
I agree to a large extent. However, some writers do omit the relative even then. I remember a couple of sentences:
There's somebody at the door [who/that] wants to see you.
I don't remember who said/wrote that.

"All stories [that are] lo
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Then how about these?

All taking drugs will be prevented from participating.

All found guilty of drug abuse will be charged.

All entering must produce the correct papers.

All meeting Jim tomorrow can be sure of a good laugh.
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Cool Breeze"All stories [that are] long enough end in death."

Ernest Hemingway

Since the verb is omitted too, that's a different construction.

Then how about these?

All taking drugs will be prevented from participating.
All found guilty of drug abuse will be charged.
All entering must produce the correct pap
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AnonymousOmission of "that" is common in spoken English in such constructions as these:

the bloke came to stay with us was from Africa

we had this African bloke came to stay

there a guy in our class has a an ¡Phone

I wouldn't call those examples realistic; and I wouldn't call it a particularly common construction in spoken
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But could you shed light on the question about when and where to omit, MrP?

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