A watch not worth a penny was being sold there.
In this sentence, do I have to, must and should put "that is" like this?
A watch that is not worth a penny was being sold there.
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No, but the deletion robs you of a distinction ('A watch that was not worth a penny was being sold there' vs 'A watch that is not worth a penny was being sold there').– Edwin AshworthCommented Aug 23, 2015 at 22:56
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2 Answers
A watch not worth a penny was being sold there.
In this sentence, do I have to, must and should put "that is" like this?
A watch that is not worth a penny was being sold there.
No, you should not. The reason is that you cannot assume the present tense. The watch wasn't worth a penny at the time but you don't know how much it is worth now.
Therefore you can either leave the sentence unchanged, or you can add 'was', as follows:
A watch that was not worth a penny was being sold there.
I prefer the original, shorter version.
answered Aug 24, 2015 at 0:19
You may, but it is perfectly idiomatic without it. It is a small clause.
answered Aug 24, 2015 at 0:12
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Yes. If it's not there, I'll fill it in without even thinking about it; if I happen to be in a mood where I care about such minutiae. The guts of the meaning comes across either way. Commented Aug 30, 2015 at 13:58