One should also note that various dialects of English, including some British dialects if I'm not mistaken, allow omission of the relative pronoun for subjects of the relative clause, that is, a sentence like "He's the man met me at the airport" is perfectly fine in these dialects. Thank you to Herb for the enlightening list of conditions concerning the status of "that". This shows how enriching a look into a major reference grammar can be. Dr. Johanna Rubba, Ph. D. Associate Professor, Linguistics Linguistics Minor Advisor English Dept. Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 Ofc. tel. : 805-756-2184 Dept. tel.: 805-756-2596 Dept. fax: 805-756-6374 E-mail: [log in to unmask] URL: cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/