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What is the meaning of "that" in the following sentence,

"I am about to reveal something to you that has taken me months to work up the nerve to confess"

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Does that mean "To revel something to you" ?

Does it mean "I am about to reveal something to you. To reveal something to you has taken me months to work up the nerve to confess " ?

If so, I would be grateful if you could introduce some examples that are used in this way.

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    "That" refers to "something", that is, "the information that I'm going to reveal to you".
    – CowperKettle
    Nov 10, 2017 at 7:44
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    "That" is anaphoric to "something". We understand that "something has taken me months to ..., and I'm about to reveal it to you".
    – BillJ
    Nov 10, 2017 at 7:46
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    If so, does "I am about to reveal something to you that has taken me months to work up the nerve to confess" mean " I am about to reveal to you something that has taken me months. and I work up the nerve to confess something" ?
    – user22046
    Nov 10, 2017 at 7:59
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    'Something has taken me months to work up the nerve to confess, and I am about to reveal that "something" to you'.
    – BillJ
    Nov 10, 2017 at 8:12
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    BillJ // If so, does "'Something has taken me months to work up the nerve to confess, and I am about to reveal that "something" to you'." mean "Something has taken me months and I work up the nerve to confess something, and I am about to reveal that something to you" ?
    – user22046
    Nov 10, 2017 at 8:25

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"I am about to reveal something to you. The thing I am about to reveal to you has taken me months to work up the nerve to confess"

... is how I would rephrase it.

  1. That as a Relative Pronoun

That is also used as a relative pronoun: I bought the book that is required for this course. The Longman Grammar found that that as a relative pronoun is more common in academic writing and newspaper writing than in conversation. Indeed, conversation tends to have more of those sentences where the relative pronoun is dropped: I bought the book required for this course.

Source: The Many Uses of That

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