Cuándo puedo ( debo) omitir “that” en inglés. B2

There are a few reasons why we need to know if the relative pronoun is the subject or the object of the relative clause.

One reason is that sometimes we can drop the relative pronoun. But we can only do this when the relative pronoun is the object of the relative clause.

• She drank the coffee that was on the table.

Here, ‘that’ is the subject of the relative clause, so we can’t drop ‘that’. It is the subject of the verb ‘was’.

• She drank the coffee (that) James brought. 

Here, ‘that’ is the object of the relative clause (the subject is ‘James’), so we can choose to drop ‘that’, if we want. The meaning is exactly the same with ‘that’ and without ‘that’.