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Omo Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

When do you omit a "that" preceding the surbordinate clause?

ie) I think that he is innocent. VS I think he is innocent.

I'm sure that he will come here VS I'm sure he will come here etc.
  

Top answer

Hi Omo There is no hard and fast rule for this. You can normally omit the conjunction that when no pause is needed in speech for the listener to understand what is being said, which in effect means [that] you can omit that almost always. CB

— Cool Breeze

  • Hi Omo There is no hard and fast rule for this.
  • You can normally omit the conjunction that when no pause is needed in speech for the listener to understand what is being said, which in effect means [that] you can omit that almost always.
  • CB
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7 Answers
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Hi Omo

There is no hard and fast rule for this. You can normally omit the conjunction thatwhen no pause is needed in speech for the listener to understand what is being said, which in effect means [that]
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Cool BreezeHi Omo

There is no hard and fast rule for this. You can normally omit the conjunction thatwhen no pause is needed in speech for the listener to understand what is being said, which in effect means [that]
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OmoI've understood the rule in case of speech. If you don't mind, I'd like to know the rule in case of texts as well.
I meant [that] uttering a sentence will help you decide about the possible omission of that. If you can leave it out in speech, you can leave it out in written English as well. One instance in which that is normally not
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Thanks again, CB!

This is my last question in this thread.

Does writing "that" in a sentence where it can be ommited sound formal or polite?

Vice versa, does ommiting "that" in that kind of sentence sound informal?

Thanks in advance.

Omo
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Hi,
"that" is not needed when what follows is a subject. If there's a verb, you can't leave it out.

You can leave out the green ones if you want (native speakers usually leave them out in speech), but not the red ones.

Mary is the girl (that) I told you about.
I wanted to say (that)
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And that cannot be dropped at the beginning of a sentence in the more rare case of a that clause as subject of the sentence.

That he was late was not really a problem.

CJ
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OmoDoes writing "that" in a sentence where it can be ommited sound formal or polite?

Vice versa, does ommiting "that" in that kind of sentence sound informal?
I don't think it has anything to do with politeness but omitting a conjunction is probably more common in speech than writing. As to Kooyeen's post, he is of course right. I only dealt with
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