Question about the word "that"

Hello,

Which sentence do you think is correct?

I think that the first sentences reads much better because of the additional ‘that’. However a student told me that they don’t think it’s needed, and I couldn’t explain why I thought it was.

What do you think? Would you use a ‘that’ in this sentence? Is there a difference here between British and American English?

Thanks

bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learn … v336.shtml

Both look correct to me. I’d omit “that” more often in informal writing.

The first sentence sounds better to my ears. Even when reading the second sentence, I still insert “that” in my mind. I think it’s because when I reach the “is” part of the sentence, I’m expecting to hear exactly what benefit you’re describing. In the first sentence, “that” acts as a marker to indicate that the rest of the sentence is going to describe the benefit.

I wouldn’t consider either sentence incorrect, but if I were writing formally, I would probably use:

The again, I just know what sounds better to my ears. I’m unsure of the rules behind it all.

Both of the OP’s example sentences are correct.

In my opinion, for long and/or complex sentences, I would advise using “that” to make it clearer to the reader… especially in formal writing.

“that” is called a “complementizer”, and it signals [color=#FF0000]that[/color] what comes after it is a complete sentence.