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Is there any difference between "it" and "that" in these sentences? A: I cut my hand this morning. B: How did you do it/that? A: Why weren't you at the meeting yesterday? B: I didn't know about it/that. Is there any difference between "it" and "that" in these sentences? If there is, which is better?
Sep 19, 2014 11:50 AM
Answers · 7
2
There isn't much difference, but my first reaction was that I would definitely use "that" in the first example and "it" in the second. However, I can't think of any general rule I would be following by doing that - maybe it is because "meeting" is a noun and "cut my hand" is an action. http://koreamosaic.net/elp/extras/general/itthat.htm has some guidance on it/that - reading that, perhaps the reason is that "cut my hand" counts as an "interesting new fact" whereas the meeting is something that both people in the conversation knew about before, even if one of them had since forgotten about it.
September 19, 2014
1
I personally would say there is no difference in those sentences.
September 19, 2014
Thank you for answering me! I'll try to be careful about the difference between them.
September 20, 2014
To me, using "it" or "that" changes the sentence. You can't treat them as the same word.
September 19, 2014
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