Learn English – Can we ever use “that” and “who” right next to each other

copular-verbsnoun-phrasespredicative-complementsubordinate-clausessyntactic-analysis

I’ve learned that we can use that to provide more information for
abstract nouns, such as problem, belief, etc. I don’t quite understand
what that means, though, so let me try it out.

For example, here I’ll “use that to provide more information about
the word problem” by placing it right at the very front of a clause
serving as the predicate complement after “The problem is” below:

  1. The problem is that who will go.
  2. The problem is who will go.

Can I use sentence #1 here in place of sentence #2? Does that sound
ok that way? Would that mean that “that who will go” counts as
a thing, or if not, that only “who will go” counts as a thing? What’s the difference between those two subordinate clauses?

More generally, does English syntax ever allow for using that
and who right next to each other like I’ve just done above?

  • If so, does this have any special name for it in grammar?

  • If not, how does this rule that they’ve taught us that we can “use
    that to provide more information for abstract nouns like problem
    play out in the real world? If my suggested example in sentence #2 with that who next to each other
    is wrong, what then would be a correct example of that which would
    clearly demonstrate this rule they’ve taught us about the word that?

Best Answer

[1] *The problem is that who will go.

[2] The problem is who will go.

[1] is ungrammatical. The subordinator "that" can introduce declarative content clauses but not subordinate interrogative clauses (like "who will go").

[2] is acceptable, though normally we find "The problem is: Who will go?"

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