Thatis a very common word in both writing and speaking. We use it as a determiner, a demonstrative pronoun and a relative pronoun. We also use it as aconjunction to introducethat-clauses.
That: determiner and pronoun
We usethatmostcommonly topoint to a thing or person. We use it with singular nouns. The thing or person is often distant from the speaker and sometimes closer to the listener, or not visible to either the speaker or listener:
Can you pass methatgreen bowl over there?(determiner)
[pointing to one of a selection of different paint colours]
I quite likethatone.
That’s Harold in the white shirt, isn’t it?(pronoun)
We also usethatto refer back to a whole clause:
A:We’re having a few friends round for dinner. Would you like to come?
B:Thatsounds lovely.
Why don’t you come at around 8?That’ll give me time to get ready.
A:Can you tell Kat to hurry up? We’ve got to leave at 11.
B:I’ve already told herthat.
We usethatto refer back to something that has already been spoken or written about:
If he getsthatjob in London, he’ll be able to visit us more often.
That: relative pronoun
We usethatto introduce defining relative clauses. We can usethatinstead ofwho, whomorwhichto refer to people, animals and things.Thatis more informalthanwhoorwhich:
She picked up the hairbrushthatshe had left on the bed.
He was the first director of the National Science Foundation, and he funded science research with an annual budgetthatgrew to 500 million dollars.
See also:
Relative clauses
That-clauses
We also usethatto introducethat-clauses after some verbs,adjectives and nouns:
I admitthatI was wrong.(verb +that-clause)
Are you certainthatthe man in the car was Nick?(adjective +that-clause)
The name of the company illustrates my beliefthatsign language is a fascinating form of communication.(noun +that-clause)
See also:
That-clauses
That:other uses
That’s+ adjective
We usethat’s+ adjective (e.g.that’s lovely, that’s good, that’s great, that’s terrible, that’s awful) to respond to something that someone is telling us, to show that we are listening:
A:They got stuck in traffic on the way to the airport and missed the plane.
B:Oh,that’s awful.
Thatas an intensifier
We usenot that+ adjective to mean ‘not very’ or ‘not as … as you are saying’. We put spoken stress onthat:
A:I thought the meal was delicious.
B:Mine wasn’tthatnice. (My meal wasn’t as nice as you are saying. My meal wasn’t delicious.)
A:I wouldn’t be surprised if Emily became an actress.
B:I don’t think she’sthatgood.
See also:
This,that,these,those
Relative clauses
It,thisandthatin paragraphs
Verb patterns: verb +that-clause
That-clauses