Learn English – Omitting ‘that’ in this sentence

ellipsisrelative-clausesrelative-pronounssubjects

There is so much (that) is at stake for many.

Can we omit 'that' in this sentence?

Best Answer

No, the relative pronoun that cannot be omitted in the sentence "There is so much (that) is at stake for many".

This is because that functions as the subject of the defining relative clause that is at stake. When the relative pronoun is the subject of the relative clause it cannot be omitted.

The same applies to the other relative pronouns. For example:

  • There are so many people who are in jobs they dislike.
  • There is so much which is unknown about the universe.

If, on the other hand, the pronoun functions as the object of the relative clause, then it can be omitted:

  • There is so much (that) you can do to make the world a better place.
  • There are so many people (who/m) I would like to thank.
  • There is so much which we don't know about the universe.

Object pronoun omission is very common in spoken English.

More information: Defining relative clauses

Addendum:

This addendum picks up on points made by @BillJ and @Snailplane that that in sentences such as the OP's is not regarded as a relative pronoun by some modern linguists.

In chapter 12, section 3.5.6 of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Huddleston, Pullum and Peterson make the case for that being treated as a subordinator, not as a relative pronoun. They discuss several ways in which that is different from the 'uncontroversial' relative pronouns (who, which, whose), including Lack of upward percolation, Finiteness and Omissibility.

Huddleston and Pullum's A Student's Introduction to English Grammar contains a shorter analysis of the same issue. It contrasts the two sentences:

  • They rejected the suggestion which your son made. (relative clause)

  • They rejected the suggestion that your son was lying. (content clause)

Clearly, it would be problematic to call that in the second sentence above a relative pronoun, not least because it cannot be replaced by the relative pronoun which. But, for me the issue is less clear cut in sentences such as:

  • They rejected the suggestion that your son made.
  • The Hyundai Santa Fe was the first car that crossed Antarctica.

where that can indeed by replaced by which.

Ultimately, however, I suspect that visitors to this ELL site are less interested in terminology than grammaticality. The terminology issue would be a good one for the sister site ELU.

There is a discussion of that as a relativizer on Wikipedia's English relative clauses.

Related Topic