1233: Reduction of Relative Clauses Apr 25, 2018

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It's a quirk of English that certain relative clauses do not require the use of 'that' (or 'who(m)' if it's about a person) such as in "his is the dog [that] bit me' where is is optional. In other languages such as German, these relative pronouns are always necessary in these same structures. However, this sort of abbreviation, so to speak, doesn't end here; some relative clauses can be rephrased from "that [subject] [verb]" into the more simple "to [verb]“ such as "it is important that [you] win" or "it is important to win".
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