Subject Relative Clause

Question

Inventions people said would never work.I want to know more about this sentence, expecially GRAMMAR.why we don't use Inventions people said which/that would never work. ???Please help me !!

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Boeun Lee Inventions people said would never work.I want to know more about this sentence, expecially GRAMMAR.why we don't use Inventions people said which/that would never work. ???Please help me !!

Inventions (that) people said (that) would never work. 'that' is optional.

Sherpa.

CalifJim · Answer

Boeun LeeInventions people said would never work.

inventions (that) people said that would never work

The underlined portion is simultaneously a relative clause modifying an antecedent (inventions) and a content complement clause of another verb (said).

The first 'that' is optional. The second (in gray) must be omitted because 'inventions' is the subject of the clause 'would never work'. Others like this are the following:

a fate (that) I thought was reserved only for me
a few cups (that) everyone claimed were valuable

Similar sentences where the antecedent is not the subject of the clause may include the second that, but it is usually omitted there as well. Here are some examples.

some money (that) Helen said (that) Kyle had stolen
the furniture (that) Sandy said (that) we wanted to sell

In short, with this type of modifying clause you can safely omit both 'that's.

CJ

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