Learn English – ‘The next time you are going to’ or ‘The next time {when/if} you go’ – which is correct

grammaticalitytense

The next time you are going to Agra don't worry about being late.

Shouldn't that sentence be:

The next time when/ if you go to Agra don't worry about being late.

I believe a connector is required after time. The next time and present continuous sounds strange to a non native speaker.

Is the only difference is the formal and the informal way of writing?

Best Answer

There is a "connector" after time. But it's been omitted.

Both

The next time [that] you are going to Agra don't worry about being late.

and

The next time [that] you go to Agra don't worry about being late.

are idiomatic and grammatical.

Notice that the relative pronoun that can be omitted without changing the meaning. I've indicated the relative clause in italics.

See Cambridge on Relative pronouns, including Relative pronouns: that and No relative pronoun, the latter of which talks about omitting the relative pronoun.

See Omission of that on the website English Grammar.

Related: Omission of "that" in this text, which seems to be partially based on/inspired by English Grammar (the first result in a Google search for 'Omission of that').

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