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In the sentence "She was so angry that she couldn't speak", can I omit "that"? Does "She was so angry she couldn't speak" sound natural to you?

In addition, in this sentence "There was such a lot of rain that we couldn’t go out", can I omit "that"? Does "There was such a lot of rain we couldn’t go out" sound natural to you?

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"such a lot of rain" sounds awkward. I recommend

It was raining so hard that we couldn't go out.

  • that is optional. You could replace it with a comma.
  • so much rain would be a slight improvement over such a lot of rain. However, was raining so hard better expresses the continuing weather condition at the time that the decision to stay inside was made.
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Yes, you can omit that.

In writing, I'd write it as this though

She was so angry, she couldn't speak

In speaking, I'd have a short pause after angry

She was so angry

1-2 second pause

she couldn't speak

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  • Thank you very much!In this sentence "What about "There was such a lot of rain that we couldn’t go out ", can I omit "that"? Does "What about "There was such a lot of rain we couldn’t go out " sound natural to you?
    – April
    Jul 27, 2014 at 14:50
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    2 second is way too long of a pause for that sentence. 1 second would add very strong emphasis. I would normally pause about 300 ms.
    – Charles
    Jul 27, 2014 at 17:16
  • I'm not sure if the comma is valid there. I know for sure that using a comma before 'that' is ungrammatical – why would the rule change when 'that' is omitted?
    – ntoskrnl
    Jul 27, 2014 at 20:21

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