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"Advantages of whatever THAT happens always outweigh the costs"

Grammarly underlines THAT as red to leave it out. I know that when I say "whatever happens, I will be there for you" there is no need for "that. But when I use it after "of" I feel like a "that" is called for.

If you agree or not could you please ascertain why or when one uses "that" with "whatever, whenever,etc" if ever..

Thank you

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  • No; that's ungrammatical. Perhaps you feel the pull of '"Advantages of whatever it is that happens always outweigh the costs".
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Sep 12, 2021 at 14:47
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    Also: consider "The advantages..." - the version without is not necessarily wrong, but the version with "the" is more natural in most circumstances.
    – psmears
    Commented Feb 9, 2022 at 17:08

3 Answers 3

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When the word 'that' is used to pin-point a particular noun it is a demonstrative word but using the word 'whatever' has a connotation of a unspecified or unpredictable situation. Perhaps, 'that' and 'whatever' are two word of opposite connotation to it so they can't be used together in the sentence.

Whereas when you try to describe your feelings you would want it to be accurate so you go for a demonstrative word like 'that' which is correct.

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  • Your answer seems elaborate but could you please connect the theory to some examples and maybe preferably to the example in the question? In my example is "that" necessary or to be left out?
    – Ceyhun Özsoylu
    Commented Apr 17, 2021 at 20:21
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"Advantages of whatever THAT happens always outweigh the costs" In the sentence as above let us attempt clause division.

Advantages (of whatever THAT happens) always outweigh the costs" •Advantages always outweigh the costs"— is the main clause.

••of whatever that happens— subordinate adjective clause

— in which (That) has no validity, whereas (OF) establishes the relationship bonding with "advantages." You may retain( that ), but it that case (of whatever) is rendered dangling a-begging a predicator or, so to say another clause construction. OF, IN, TO, FOR Or for that matter many such preposition before subordinating conjunctions are relation markers. In the last analysis, it is better that we must drop THAT from the sentence. However if we replace (whatever) with, say, (things) the subject phrase would be(Advantages of the things) of the main clause, and in that case you may retain (that).

By the way, WHATEVER is a relative pronoun / a subordinating conjunction and both the case it joins two clauses and require no other conjunction as THAT.

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In "The advantages of whatever THAT happens always outweigh the costs" whatever is the subject of the noun clause "whatever happens", and "happens" is the verb.

Why would you separate the subject from its verb with "that"?

"Who saw the film "Slumdog Millionaire"?" Correct.

*"Who that saw the film "Slumdog Millionaire"?" Wrong.

That introduces

(i) a relative clause "The man that gave it to me was quite tall." (Here that is required) or

(ii) a content clause "I said that I was hungry." (Here that is optional.)

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  • If it's not a rude question why would you add the 's ' to 'outweigh'? Both 'advantages' and 'costs' are plural and I can't see that "The advantages of whatever happens" is a singular noun phrase.
    – BoldBen
    Commented Apr 11, 2021 at 3:05
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    A mistake - I lost concentration.
    – Greybeard
    Commented Apr 11, 2021 at 9:30
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    I thought so, I'm one of the worst offenders when it comes to typos!
    – BoldBen
    Commented Apr 12, 2021 at 22:20

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