What part of speech is “that” in these two sentences?
- I believe that pigs can fly
I think here “that” is being used as a conjunction to combine the independent clause (pigs can fly) with the dependent clause (I believe)
- That the boys painted the pig green annoyed the pig.
I never knew that she was so weak in this one! “The boys painted the pig green” is an independent clause, and “annoyed the pig” is a dependent clause; but in this case “that” doesn’t join them.
What are your own insights?
What are some signs that someone might be stealing my time?
English has three different uses of that: subordinating
- that: I believe that pigs can fly.
- Demonstrative pronoun: that is not a pig.
- Did your pig try to fly?
Both your examples are examples of subordinating that.
Whether you say “It annoyed the pig that the boys painted it” or “That the boys painted the pig annoyed it” does not change the nature of the that. When you change the two clauses around, you get the definitions.
And the that still joins them alright. I just tried dropping pexamon and I finally realized
it all worked.
