234. Adjective and Pronoun Uses of “that”

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“That” the singular of “those” has some surprising uses

KEY FEATURES

Dictionaries usually have multiple entries for that, thus showing it not to be a single word. It is indeed a prime example of what I have elsewhere called a “multi-use” word: it can be an adjective, pronoun, adverb or conjunction, and its pronoun uses are of two very different kinds (see 153. Conjunction Uses of “that”).

The uses that I wish to focus on in this post have three notable features in common: they both have the /æ/ vowel (rhyming with sat) rather than the weak /ә/ (as in the); they are both closely related to this; and they can both be put into the plural form those. This focus means that one of the two pronoun uses of that – as a “relative” resembling which – is excluded (see instead 34. Relative Pronouns and Commas), but the use of those is included. 

Of course, adjective and pronoun uses of that receive plenty of attention at fairly low levels in English coursebooks. The reason for their inclusion in this blog, which is generally about more advanced or rarely-encountered topics, is that they have uses which are either rarely mentioned or covered under other grammatical headings. My hope is that placing everything together here will lead to a greater understanding of the essence of these words.

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ADJECTIVE USES

The adjective-like use of that is in combination with a following noun (or equivalent). Of course, if the noun is plural, that must change to those (See 204. Grammatical Agreement, #2a). This form variability is an indication that that is actually rather different from most English adjectives, as they do not usually change their form according to whether their noun is singular or plural. In fact, most grammarians place that in a special class of adjective-like words called “determiners”, other members of which include the, this, their and much. For more examples, see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”.

One major use of adjective-like that in professional writing is referring back to any part of an immediately-preceding statement except its subject:

(a) Early scientists believed fire came from “phlogiston”, an invisible substance inside combustible bodies. That idea was discarded after the discovery of oxygen.

Here, that idea refers back to the belief of early scientists. It is an example of what I have elsewhere called “repetition for linking” (see 24. Good and Bad Repetition). One could actually use that by itself (i.e. as a pronoun), but using it with a noun is usually recommended in the interests of clarity.

An important question concerning back-referring that is how it differs from the very similar usage of this (see 28. Pronoun Errors, #2). With other uses of that, of course, most students of English learn that the difference is usually one of distance in space or time: this indicating near the speaker, that further away. These ideas can partially explain the difference with respect to the back-referring use.

Choosing between this and that according to distance in time seems as possible with the back-referring use as it is in everyday English. In sentence (a), for example, part of the reason for preferring that to this is the historical nature of the idea of phlogiston (for a further example, see 193. A Test of Formal Language Use, #24). By contrast, the space difference seems with the back-referring use to be often metaphorical, indicating not a physical distance but an intellectual one: sentence (a) says the writer is as distanced in agreement with the idea of “phlogiston” as s/he is in time.

A second notable use of adjective-like that actually requires the plural those. The subsequent plural noun is usually followed by a “defining” relative clause or preposition equivalent:

(b) “That” is one of those small words with multiple uses.

Those here signals both that the following noun idea is a subgroup and that the addressee has been familiar with it for some time. Alternative meanings are created by replacing the underlined part of (b) with the following:

THE small words…: indicating a subgroup and assuming its familiarity through a recent mention.

VARIOUS small words…: indicating a subgroup and assuming no addressee familiarity with it.

For more on assumed familiarity, see 235. Special Uses of “the”, #1.

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PRONOUN USES

That by itself has more uses than the adjective-like version in formal writing. As indicated above, it too can refer back. However, like the adjective (and like this) it cannot usually refer further back than to the previous sentence. Reference further back can be done instead with the above, the previous… or, possibly, all this (never all these) (see 48. Tricky Word Contrasts 1, #4).

The following are notable additional uses:

1. In Fixed Phrases

English has some words that are combined often enough with that for the two together to qualify as a “collocation” – a frequently-occurring word partnership with a single overall meaning. Most tend to be classified grammatically as “connectors” (see 259. Multi-Word Connectors).

Perhaps the most familiar connector phrase is after that, an introducer of a new event or stage in a series, especially one in the past (see 282. Features of History Writing, #5) or the future (new stages in general instruction and process descriptions tend to prefer after this: see 210. Process Descriptions, #2). Another common connector is that is to say (= in other words), often abbreviated to i.e. (see 130. Formal Abbreviations). That cannot be replaced by this.

Other connectors are with that, upon that, at that and that said. The first three are again perhaps most typical in historical and fictional narrative. They indicate that an event described after them follows on immediately from one described before:

(c) Suddenly the stage was enveloped in smoke. With that, the curtain descended.

With that shows closeness in time rather than space, rather like with before a participle at the end of a sentence (see 88. Exotic Grammar Structures 1, #7). Upon that seems more likely when the two events have the same subject (see 289. Exotic Grammar Structures 8, #4).

At that is usable as both a connector and a more ordinary adverb. The former means “in immediate response” and as such usually introduces a description of consequential human or animal behaviour:

(d) The team announced that a wonder cure had been found. At that, everyone applauded.

As an ordinary adverb, at that usually follows an adjective or adverb, adding a second good or bad feature to a just-mentioned one:

(e) The work was accomplished quickly, and cheaply at that.

Here, cheaply is highlighted as a good feature added to the good one quickly. An example of an added bad feature might be …an illness, and a severe one at that. The …at that addition often follows a comma + and, but it could follow a full stop without and.

That said does actually contain a participle, and it can also have with in front. Its meaning is very like that of nevertheless, introducing a statement that sounds contradictory after a point before it:

(f) Consumers will generally seek to purchase goods offering the best value for money. That said, they will pay a very high price for something that they desperately desire.

Other notable fixed expressions are the questions is that all? and how about that? (see 274. Questions with a Hidden Meaning, #4 and #21).

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2. Marking an End

In speech, that + BE often announces the end of a topic, section or performance. That’s all and That’s it are common ways of doing this informally and briefly. That’s that additionally implies that further discussion is useless or forbidden. It can also highlight completion of a task, along with resultant satisfaction.

In oral presentations, where the audience lack time to think about the overall structure of what they are trying to understand, so that they need plentiful “signpost” language to help them, that is (or those are) before the name of a just-finished topic is useful for signposting its end:

(g) So that is (or those are) the main argument(s) against the proposal. Now what can be said in favour?

For details of this and other types of oral signposting, see 186. Language in Oral Presentations.

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3. Replacing “the one(s)”

The one(s) is a pronoun that can replace a countable noun representing one or more obvious members of a wider group (see 63. Constraints on Using “the one/s”). It normally needs descriptive wording before and/or after it (e.g. the red one; the ones in the middle) in order to identify the exact group members meant.

That/Those can only replace the one(s) when the descriptive wording comes after, e.g. the ones/those in the middle. Such replacement is particularly common in professional writing because it sounds more formal. One type of sentence where it is very likely to be found is comparisons like the following:

(h) The growth rate in the North is higher than that in the South.

For more on such sentences, see 170. Logical Errors in Written English, #3.

There is one situation where the meaning of the one can only be expressed by that or an ordinary noun: where the noun in question is uncountable, e.g. information. For details, see the above-mentioned post on the one/s.

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4. Referring to People in General (“those” only)

If those is directly before a preposition or wh- without representing any noun idea from a previous sentence or external context, it usually means people in general. This is the intended meaning in the following proverb, also quoted in 211. General Words for People:

(i) Those who live by the sword die by the sword.

For those here not to mean people in general, there would need to be a mention in the previous sentence of a subgroup of people such as robbers. Those would then mean “the ones” (its singular form being the one, not that).

The “people in general” meaning of those is also possible in sentences like the following:

(j) Those who want value for money are consumers.

Without a context, those here could be referring back to a just-mentioned specific human group, but it could also just mean people in general, in which case who… would be introducing a subgroup equating to consumers at the end. Organizing a sentence in this way says unambiguously that its primary information is at the end after are (or other form of BE).

Many sentences can use BE as a secondary verb near the end, as in (j), in order to highlight key information like consumers. However, most need to begin with what. Those who is necessary instead if the key information is a group of people. For more details, see 145. Highlighting with “What…” Sentences.