"But that if you do that" or "But if you do that" Which one is more common in written English?

Question

Note: The text of this question changed after two of the answers were provided. If reviewing those answers, be sure to review their EDIT sections, as they initially start off by replying to different quoted text.

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Consider a sentence from Jason Bassford in reply to What does it mean? “Feminism's fine, but there's a lot to be said for having your bills paid” (emphasis mine):

The short interpretation of the sentence is that she's saying you can have feminist ideals and, as a woman, support yourself - but that if you do that you won't make as much money as you would if you married a rich man.

As far as I know, there is no difference in meaning between it and this one which removes that:

The short interpretation of the sentence is that she's saying you can have feminist ideals and, as a woman, support yourself - but if you do that you won't make as much money as you would if you married a rich man.

Which one is more common in written English? And which is commonly used in spoken English?

Answer 1

This sentence, as written here doesn't make sense to me as a native British English speaker:

You can have feminist ideals and, as a woman, support yourself, but that if you do that you won't make as much money as you would if you married a rich man.

The extra "that" which is the subject of your question just shouldn't be there, if this sentence is complete and is a statement.

I'm going to add a bit more to your sentence and make it make sense without taking anything away:

He said that you can have feminist ideals and, as a woman, support yourself, but that if you do that you won't make as much money as you would if you married a rich man.

Now your extra "that" makes some sense. In this sentence the narrator is quoting someone, without quoting verbatim. When you say "He said that..." as opposed to "He said" it is understood that what follows is a summary, or the essence of what was said. If you quote someone verbatim, you use quotation marks.

So the meaning of my sentence is that "he" (whoever he is) said that you can have feminist ideals and, as a woman, support yourself, but he also said that if you do that ("that" being what he previously said) you won't make as much money as you would if you married a rich man.

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EDIT

You have since cited the full quotation, and I was basically correct - there was more that preceded the sentence you typed, and it was a summarised quotation.

The short interpretation of the sentence is that she's saying you can have feminist ideals and, as a woman, support yourself - but that if you do that you won't make as much money as you would if you married a rich man.

The writer here even tells you that what he is about to say is a "short interpretation" of something somebody else said, and he summarises it by saying that she said two things:

1. That you can have feminist ideals and, as a woman, support yourself
2. That if you do (have feminist ideals and as a woman support yourself), you won't make as much money as you would if you married a rich man.

The second "that" still doesn't strictly need to be there, but the person quoting uses it to show that he still summarising the opinion of someone else.

Answer 2

Your first sentence is not idiomatic in either written or spoken standard English. The word "that" can be used in a confusingly different number of ways.

You could idiomatically say:

"You can have feminist ideals and, as a woman, support yourself, but that course of conduct won't make you as wealthy as marrying a rich man." In that sentence, "course of conduct" is the subject of the second clause, and "that" is a determiner referencing the course of conduct described in the first clause.

You could idiomatically say:

"You can have feminist ideals and, as a woman, support yourself, but if you do that, you won't become as wealthy as by marrying a rich man." In that sentence, "that" is a pronoun representing the course of conduct described in the first clause and the subject of the second clause.

Or you can also say:

"You can have feminist ideals and, as a woman, support yourself, but if you do that, you won't become as wealthy as you will by marrying a rich man." In that sentence, "that" is a pronoun representing the course of conduct described in the first clause and the object of the verb in the subordinate clause.

As I said, "that" can take on multiple roles, but in your first proposed sentence, the "that" plays no grammatical role whatesover and is so redundant as to be not idiomatic.

EDIT Well, given the complete sentence, the "that" is being used as a conjunction, and it is idiomatic. You will not get intelligent answers if you ask about partial quotations.