Structure: ‘How to use “that” 2’

Using ‘that’

In our previous post we saw two common ways to use ‘that’. Today we’ll see two more ways to use ‘that’.

1. I am certain that he is a pilot.
The structure here is is/was + adjective + that + …. You can use ‘be’ in different tenses but the overall structure remains the same. After you use ‘that’ you can continue with verbs in different tenses, so you could use the present, past or future tenses etc…

Here are some more examples.
He was happy that nobody noticed his mistake.
They are sad that you will leave the airline next Friday.

Let’s look at another way to use ‘that.

2. It was reported that thirteen people were killed in the crash.
This is a more formal expression which we use to report what someone says or believes without saying who that person or those people are.
Notice the structure here; it + is/are + past participle + that….

Here are some more examples.
It is said that you have to have good stick and rudder skills to be a good pilot.
It is rumoured that the company is going to hire more employees.

Now try some examples of your own using the two different ways we looked at above.

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