When I read Nancy's two examples:

Molly hates Fred isn't coming to the party.
Molly hates that Fred isn't coming to the party.

I thought this was another, this time unfamiliar, difference between British
and American English, for I knew that we say we certainly say 'hates it
that' in the second case and never use the first construction.  Both
sentences as they stand are incorrect in British English.  Then Peter
suggests 'hates it that' as a better formation, so I am assuming that it is
NOT a difference between British and American.  Joanna, too, found the two
examples unsatisfactory.

Compare:   'He can't absorb the fact that they've succeeded.'

One can't say 'He can't absorb that they've succeeded.'

As Herbert says, one needs some kind of noun equivalent to be the object of
the main verb, noun ('the question that', 'the proposal that', 'his view
that', etc.) or pronoun ('it' after 'hates').

Edmond



Dr. Edmond Wright
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