Which is correct, "Indicates" or "Indicates that"?

Question

Which one sounds better?

"it indicates that the lane is closed" or

"it indicates the lane is closed"

Personally I would go with the first one without thinking, but I am reading a document, where the latter one is used consistently, therefore I started to doubt myself. which side do you pick on this one?

Duplicate of Are there rules about using “that” to join two clauses? — RegDwigнt, May 21 '12 at 09:58

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered May 20 '12 at 21:05

This particular that (there are several others) is being used to mark and introduce a tensed complement (often called simply a That-Complement). Such words are called Complementizers, like the for...to of many infinitive complements.

I think that [I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree].
I said for [him to ask his mother about it].

Under certain circumstances complementizers may be deleted. For instance, for is not normally used before subjects of infinitives:

I told him to ask his mother about it.
*I told for him to ask his mother about it.

and that is often dropped before a tensed complement, if it is clear that it's a complement. This condition is usually met simply by using the clause as object of an appropriate verb, so that is probably dropped more frequently than not -- unless it's needed for rhythmic purposes, as in the first sentence above, which comes from a famous American poem.

However, if the complement is the Subject of a verb instead of its Object, that can't be dropped, because a subordinate clause at the beginning of a sentence needs to be marked as being subordinate:

That he came to the party is surprising.
*He came to the party is surprising.

So Christi has it right on. One can leave it in or leave it out, and it means the same, and is equally grammatical, either way. Lots of things in English syntax work like that.

Right. But you don't say: I said him to do this. Unless you are a kid learning a language. — Noah, May 21 '12 at 01:11
Right. That's what say requires. Every verb has its own rules for complements. — John Lawler, May 21 '12 at 01:15

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered May 20 '12 at 20:16

3

I would say that both are grammatically correct and you should use whichever of the two forms you prefer.

answered May 20 '12 at 20:16

Christi

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Which is correct, "Indicates" or "Indicates that"?

2 Answers2