Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[mashi]

Dear teachers.
In conversation
Can I omit "that" in the sentence
Mike said, "I saw [b]that[/b] Mary came out of the classroom." ?
I mean
Mike said, "I saw Mary came out of the classroom."
or do I have to use "[b]come[/b]" like
Mike said, "I saw Mary [b]come[/b] out of the classroom."?

Thank you.

[myprofe]

You can say:

I saw Mary come out of the class.
I saw Mary coming out of the class.

These two sentences refer to what you observed.

I saw that Mary came out of the class.

This sentence means that you know or are aware of the fact that she came out of the class but not that you witnessed the action.
_________________
I'm never going to learn if you don't correct my mistakes!

[mashi]

Thank you, myprofe.

By the way, can I omit "that" in the sentence
I saw that Mary came out of the class.
like
I saw Mary came out of the class. ?

Thank you again.

[buddhaheart]

You can & in fact you have to omit "that" in "I saw Mary come out of the classroom." Here �saw� is the main verb and �come� is the bare infinitive. A bare infinitive is an infinitive w/o the marker �to�.

You can�t say �I saw Mary came out of the classroom." The infinitive by its very nature must always be in its root (base) form after �to�.

You may use the past form �came� if you turn the infinitive phrase into a subordinate clause. You can therefore say �I saw that Mary came out of the classroom."