Episode 110: June 6, 2008
Grammar Girl here.
Today's topic is the word that. When do you need it, and when can you leave it out?
Now, guest-writer Bonnie Trenga writes,
Today we’re going to talk about when it’s OK to omit the word that in a sentence. The sentences “The turkey sandwich I ate yesterday had too much mayonnaise” and “The turkey sandwich that I ate yesterday had too much mayonnaise” mean the same thing. In that sentence, it’s perfectly fine to leave out the that. In a similar vein, the sentences “I said I would eat a sandwich” and “I said that I would eat a sandwich” are equal. So are you allowed to leave out the that in such cases? Well, it depends.
"That" Can Help Sentence Flow
When you’re deciding whether to keep or omit your that, you need to consider how your sentence flows. Many times, it’s just a matter of personal preference. Some people think adding that improves the flow of the sentence and makes it easier for the reader to understand. Others believe they should delete every seemingly unnecessary that because they want to maintain an economy of words (1). I’m all for cutting unnecessary words, but I often like to keep my that if it helps the rhythm of the sentence. You’ll have to judge whether using that in your particular sentence improves or hurts its flow. Sometimes it helps to read your paragraph aloud to see if you’ve got the right rhythm. The AP Stylebook, which is typically used by journalists, suggests you use a that when in doubt (2). It advises, “Omission can hurt. Inclusion never does.”
Sometimes "That" Is Necessary
Now, there are several cases when a that might be necessary. If your sentence already has another that or two, you might not want to complicate it more by adding yet another that (3). One of the sentences above falls into this category. I said, “Some people think adding that improves the flow of the sentence.” I could have also said, “Some people think that adding that improves the flow of the sentence,” but I thought two cases of that would be a bit much.
Another time you should consider using a that is when your sentence could be ambiguous or misunderstood. Steven Pinker, a linguist, warns about what he calls “garden path sentences” (4). These are sentences that seem to mean one thing but then turn out to mean something else. Sometimes, keeping a that can help you avoid such problematic sentences. Pinker explains, “These are called garden path sentences, because their first words lead the listener ‘up the garden path’ to an incorrect analysis.”
Here's an example of a sentence that leads the reader down the wrong path when you omit the word that:
Aardvark maintains Squiggly's yard is too big.
Without a that, the reader is initially led to believe that Aardvark maintains, as in mows, Squiggly's yard. If you add in a that, it's clear from the beginning that Aardvark just has an opinion.
Aardvark maintains that Squiggly's yard is too big (5).