When to Use "That" in English

Aubrey Carter (0:00)

This is an All Ears English Podcast, episode 2706, When to Use That in English.

Lindsay McMahon (0:09)

Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer. Coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com/subscribe.

Do you often hear native speakers using the word that and then not using the word that? What gives? Today, find out when it's optional and how to make the choice.

SPEAKER_3 (1:08)

Fluency is not about speaking perfectly. It's about communicating comfortably, being able to share your ideas without stress, react naturally in conversations, and express your personality in English. If English still feels like something you have to manage carefully, you're probably very close to the next level of fluency. But progress becomes much faster once you know exactly where you stand. Take our free two-minute fluency quiz and discover your English level today. Go to allearsenglish.com/fluencyscore.

That's allearsenglish.com/f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e.

Lindsay McMahon (2:03)

Hello, Aubrey. How are you today?

Aubrey Carter (2:05)

I'm great. How are you doing, Lindsay?

Lindsay McMahon (2:08)

I am doing great. Aubrey, did you know that English has more words than most languages?

Aubrey Carter (2:15)

I did not know that, but I'm excited you both used that in your question. I used it in my answer. This might be the word that we use most in English. That little word, that.

SPEAKER_3 (2:27)

Yeah.

Lindsay McMahon (2:27)

It's everywhere. It's rampant, right? So that's why we thought we'd focus on this today. Why not?

SPEAKER_3 (2:32)

Yes.

Aubrey Carter (2:32)

And we get questions from students about this a lot. Like I've noticed sometimes in a sentence, a native speaker will use that and then the next sentence, they'll drop it or someone else will drop it.

Why? This is so tricky. So we're excited to dive into this today.

Lindsay McMahon (2:46)

Yeah. We're going to clear up all of your questions and you'll come out of this episode feeling just more fluent, a deeper understanding of English, an important part of English. So Aubrey, where should we start today?

Aubrey Carter (2:57)

Yeah. So we're answering. This came up again in the Q&A, our Q&A recently, when to leave that and when to drop it. So just to share a couple examples here, right? This sentence, I knew she would be here soon.

We definitely could say, I knew that she would be here soon. There's no difference, right? So why do we use it? When do we drop it?

Lindsay McMahon (3:17)

Right. So just to clear this, just be really clear, just to make sure our listeners know. So we have the option there, right? Aubrey, with that example, you could, it's a personal, is it just personal preference or what is it?

Aubrey Carter (3:29)

We're going to get into this. This is tricky. There's a lot to it, right? So we're diving into this word today where there are a few different ways that we use it.

And for this, yeah, they're both the same. They mean the same, right? So here's another example. You said, did you know that English has more words than most languages? You definitely could have said, did you know English has more words than most languages? So we're going to share the different things that are making native speakers choose which one to use.

But sometimes it just sounds better to use that. Sometimes it seems like it clarifies the meaning more. And sometimes it sounds better to drop it. So when native speakers are choosing, it's more instinctual. It's like which feels better, which sounds better, rather than being a grammar rule that's making us choose one or the other.

Lindsay McMahon (4:15)

Okay, got it. All right, so we'll get in to this today. We'll explain a bit more when to actually use that and when you should avoid it, right? All right, so why does this matter for connection, Aubrey?

Aubrey Carter (4:27)

Yeah, so this is interesting because we do use it a lot in conversations. Comes up constantly in everyday English, right? We use that in sentences when we're talking about what we feel or think or when talking about things people have said, it comes up so often. And you don't want this to be something that's keeping you from connecting. Like, should I use that? Should I not? You would not want something like this to keep you from starting the conversation.