Tuesday Thought: Where have all the that's gone?

That is a wonderful word. It can be a noun, as in the preceding sentence, or it can be an adverb, adjective, conjunction, relative pronoun, substantive pronoun (more on these terms at the end). It’s so useful that it turns up in its many guises, and that is why writers try to omit it, often to excess.

As a conjunction, it can join a clause to a  verb: I believe that many writers omit it, even when they should keep it.

But in many cases it can be omitted: I believe many writers omit it, even when they should keep it.

Because it is always correct to use it, the question is when to omit it.

Consider this, from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, in a piece on McDonald’s and Starbucks:

Internal documents from 2007 say the program, which also will add smoothies and bottled beverages, will add $1 billion to McDonald’s annual sales of $21.6 billion.

The writer omitted that after say. And later in the same piece:

Franchisers say that many of their customers don’t know what a latte is.

Why omit that in the first sentence and use it in the second, when it could have been used in both or omitted in both? Not obvious. Using it in the first would have been correct but perhaps unnecessary, thanks to the following the—perhaps, because of the commenting clause following program. It would clearly be unnecessary without that clause: …say the program will add…. Not using that in the second sentence would also have been correct but infelicitous: say many.

Now consider this sentence, quoted by Evan Jenkins in the Columbia Journalism Review:

The Gore campaign believed the recount, which is continuing in two counties and pending in one, was flawed.

Without a that between believed and the recount, some readers will think the campaign believed the recount, until they get to the end of the sentence. They’ll think the object of believed is just the recount, not the entire clause. Again, the culprit is the commenting clause following recount.

So, when can that be left out? And when not? I’ve been trying to figure that out. It seems to turn on whether the verb appears to govern the entire clause or just the subject of the clause—and on how the verb and subject sound together, not separated by that. It can also turn on the length and complexity of the clause.

Omitting that also turns on whether the verb is followed by a pronoun and verb, as in:

                I know you're going to like this.

I find in my editing that I’m plugging that in where writers have left it out. But I’m also cutting it where writers have used it.

So, in the spirit of Modern English Usage, I’m compiling a list of verbs, using Fowler’s three categories, that can influence the use of that: when that is usual, when it is unusual, and when it may be used or omitted.

Usual. That is usual when attaching a clause to such verbs as announce, assume, hold, maintain, observe, and suggest.

Unusual. That can be unusual when attaching a clause to such verbs as believe, hope, presume, and think. But including it is grammatically correct and complete—and sometimes essential, as with The Gore campaign believed the recount.

Contextual. That seems to depend on context with such verbs as confess, consider, know, perceive, say, see, and understand. Again, using it or omitting it depends on how the verb and the next word sound together and whether the subject of the clause is misread as the entire object of the verb, which can happen when the clause has a commenting clause in it. See the two examples above with the verb say.

I’m also collecting examples of such usage.

Please send us any examples [that] you might come across in your reading, good or bad. I've created a Word document to get you started.

                                                                                                                      Updated 16 January 2008

Note

I said I’d write more about the terms at the beginning of this post.

That can be an adjective: I want that one.

An adverb: I don’t want it that much.

A conjunction: I see that you are happy.

A relative pronoun: This is the one that I want.

A substantive pronoun, equal to a noun: That is the one I want.