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That is anEnglish language word used for severalgrammatical purposes. These include use as anadjective,conjunction,pronoun,adverb andintensifier; it has distance from the speaker, as opposed to words likethis.

The word did not originally exist inOld English, and its concept was represented byþe. Once it came into being, it was spelt asþæt (among others, such asþet), taking the role of the modernthat. It also took on the role of the modern wordwhat, though this has since changed, andthat has recently replaced some usage of the modernwhich.

Pronunciation of the word varies according to its role within a sentence, with a strong form,/ðæt/ ^ⓘ and a weak form,/ðət/ ^ⓘ.

The wordthat serves several grammatical purposes. Owing to its wide versatility in usage, the writerJoseph Addison named it "that jacksprat" in 1771, and gave this example of a grammatically correct sentence: "That that I say is this: that that that that gentleman has advanced, is not that, that he should have proved."^[1]That can be used as a demonstrativepronoun, demonstrativeadjective,conjunction,relative word,and anintensifier.^[1]

• That as ademonstrative pronoun refers to a specific object being discussed, such as in "that is a cat";^[2] the word is adistal demonstrative pronoun, as opposed to proximal, because there is distance between the speaker and the object being discussed (as opposed to words such asthis, where there is a relative sense of closeness).^[3]
• When used as a demonstrative adjective,that describes which specific object is being discussed; for example, in the phrase "that spotted dog is Fido",that specifies which particular dog is Fido among all spotted dogs.^[4]
• In its usage as a conjunction, it connectsclauses together, such as in "I know that Peter is right".^[5] In sentences with several clauses,that is also used as a discriminator to differentiate between subjects of a clause.^[6]
• As a relative pronoun,that introducesrestrictive clauses, such as in "the different factors that are fundamental and specific to particular features"; in a study of medical science journals in Britain leading up to 2004, it was found thatthat had been largely replaced by the wordwhich when used in this context,^[7] while writing that is increasingly formal—ranging from verse to fiction to nonfiction—findsthat usage decreasing aswh- words (interrogatives) relatively increase.^[8]
• That is used as a relative adverb, such as in "it doesn't cost that much".^[9] When used in this way,that requires inferences be drawn by the listener to determine the meaning of the speaker.^[9]
• The word also intensifies elements of a sentence, similar in function to the wordso, such as when one says "I was that ill ... I couldn't even stand up."^[9] But just as in its use as a relative adverb,that as an intensifier is best understood when the addressee infers meaning from its usage.^[9] In the example given,that intensifies and refers to a possible view already held by the addressee (whether the speaker was not seriously ill), even though the speaker does not explicitly confirm or intensify this previously-held belief.^[9]

InOld English,that did not exist, and was only represented byþe.^[10] It originated in the north of England sometime before the 1200s and spread around the country in the thirteenth century; it then rapidly became the dominant demonstrative pronoun.^[11] Before the writings ofÆlfric of Eynsham,þæt was normally regularized asþe in writing, but by the time Ælfric lived,þæt was common.^[12] As a pronoun,þæt was widely used in Old English, though it was later replaced bywh- words.^[10] Whereþe had only stood in for subjects of a clause,þæt instead took on the role of both a subject and an object,^[13] and whenþe andþæt were both used,þæt was always relative in orientation.^[14] The symbolꝥ () was used as an abbreviation, before it was phased out by the Romanticþ^t.^[15] Similarly,yͭ was a ligature to representthat,^[16] as seen in the gravestone ofWilliam Shakespeare: "Bleste be yͤ man yͭ spares thes stones".^[17] InMiddle English,þe was entirely replaced byþat (among other representations), before again being replaced by the modernthat.^[10] Among all relative markers in the English language, includingwho,which,whose, andwhat,that—through its ancient form ofþæt—appears to be the oldest.^[11]

In Old English translations ofLatin (but only sparsely in original Old English texts), the phraseþæt an is frequently used—typically meaning "only"—but its origins and characteristics are not well-understood.^[18] Frequently, the construction ofþæt an was in the original Latin, which referred then to a following clause.^[19] The use ofþæt an was for cases in which there was exclusivity (to distinguish between general and specific objects), but translators also used it in situations where exclusivity was already given through other syntactical elements of the sentence.^[20] In these texts,þæt seems to be usedpleonastically (redundantly), and it began to be used as an independent adverb.^[21] In the context of weather events,þæt was never used, such as in the example sentenceþæt rigneð (translated as "that rains").^[22]

Similarly, for several centuries in Old English and early Middle English texts, the phraseonmang þæt (translated as "among that") persisted.^[23] In the hundreds of years of its existence, it was used infrequently, though the usage was stable.^[24] Even in Old English, usage ofhwile ("while") was much more commonplace, with its frequency some six times as large asonmang þæt in a surveyed corpus.^[25]Onmang þæt experiencedgrammaticalisation (turning a word into a grammatical marker),^[25] and as a result of its low usage, possibly underwent a period of specialization, where it competed with other grammaticalised phrases.^[26]

Afterverbs such assaid, and more generally in introducing adependent clause, contemporaryEnglish grammar allows the speaker to either includethat or to omit it.^[27] This construction—as in "I suspect (that) he is right"—is called the zero form whenthat is not used.^[27] While there has been some analysis of the relative frequency of Old and Middle English usage of the zero form, these studies are of limited value, since they rely on uniquetext corpora, failing to give a general view of its usage.^[28] In the late period of Middle English, the linguist Norihiko Otsu determined, the zero form was generally as popular as the form in whichthat is included.^[29] The zero form was common in documents closely relating to speech, such as sermons, suggesting spoken English often omittedthat in these contexts.^[30]

That is pronounced either as/ðæt/ ^ⓘ (strong form) or/ðət/ ^ⓘ (weak form) according to its grammatical role, with one as a demonstrative and the other as ananaphoric (referencing adverb).^[31] In this way, the strong form represents a determining pronoun (such as in "what is that?"), while the weak form is a subordinating word (as in "I think that it's a mistake").^[32]

The pronunciation of thevoiced dental fricative/ð/may vary, such as beingstopped inCameroonian English, resulting in a pronunciation of[dat].^[33]

• Dependent statement
• Deixis

• English grammar
• English words
• Declarative subordinators

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