that that?
Re-read your work and see if it’s absolutely necessary to add a that to any sentence.
For example: ”I thought that he said… blah blah blah.”
Why not say: ”I thought he said… blah blah blah.”
For example: ”I think that you should do… blah blah blah.”
Why not say: ”I think you should do… blah blah blah.”
That is a filler word we tend to overuse, like a twitch or a hiccup or a tic. (I could have said this - That is a filler word that we tend to overuse…)
Okay, done. See? I actually am capable of dropping the occasional tidbit. But only because the hubster told me to.
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LOL…thanks. I know that I use that too much. Oooops.
I am working on brutal edits right now, and my editor removed all the “thats”…..and she and you are correct….don’t need them.
That is a great question ya wee bugger. I read THAT and then found myself looking at the last couple of posts THAT I produced and noticed THAT I keep repeating THAT in the middle of sentences. I noticed THAT some of them needed a THAT but most of them could do without THAT in there. SO the answer is sometimes THAT is required so THAT the sentence makes sense, but not always .
I love THAT you throw the occasional tidbit our way but I much prefer a titbit xxxxxx
Ooh, as long as we’re doing annoying writerisms, my pet peeve-the overreaching use of “reach.”
She reached out and picked up the coffee cup.
He reached over and took her hand.
No no no no no. Just pick up the coffee and grab that girl’s hand. Stop with the reaching!
Whew, I feel better now.
Okay Jaye, that got me going! So ‘reached’ is going on my hiccup list!
Well Tom, I think THAT you should pay more attention to everything THAT you do because one doesn’t always know THAT one is doing THAT.
Actually I wrote the post because my husband took a class about leaving out ‘that’. So he told me to write it. He said he never realized how often he stuck an unnecessary ‘that’ into his letters.
Penny - that that that that that…
Amber - LOL!
I think we all use the word too much as we get use to it…
It’s unconscious, Savannah.
I worked so hard to search out and destroy “That” from my last ms That I almost hyperventilated when my editor suggested we actually needed a few That’s for the sake of clarity.
I wanted to give That the bum’s rush and not put That back! : )
It’s even harder when you’ve spent your entire life using THAT in your verbal communication! But it’s been on my search and destroy list along with just, deep, dark, and so.
I try to zap as many as I can after I’m done. It’s usually the first overused word I go after. Just is a close second!
Sometimes that ‘that’ is necessary. I do try to minimize ‘that’, Kat!
Ooh, Anny - just is another one of those tics!
Casey - LOL! Yup!
THAT is one of the most overused and useless words in the dictionary (see what I did there?). It kills me when it’s so overused, and yet we’re all guilty of doing just THAT every now and then.
Hi Emily - I so agree with THAT!