I’m thinking of a sentence like this:
This situation seems like the only place in English where you can use a word twice in a row without any quotes or commas or any other fancy things. Which makes me think maybe it’s not a correct construct, and is banned by some obscure rule. Any ideas? Or any other examples of repeated words?
I’ve been told that that’s an acceptible phrasing. 
And I dunno about exactly the same word being used twice in a sentence, but what about several homophones in a row?
e.g.
“I think I’ll go to building two.”
“I’ll go to two too.”
Or
“Where are they?”
“They’re there.”
Actually, that brought to mind a sentence with two of the same word in a row which is perfectly acceptible…
There, there. Poor dear.
Although technically allowed, I would try my darndest to rephrase a “that that” sentence.
Instead of:
How did you know that that was what I was reading?
Try:
How did you know I was reading that?
Instead of:
I’ve been told that that’s an acceptible phrasing.
Try:
I’ve been told that phrasing is acceptable.
The “that that” is less awkward sounding when spoken, as is “for four”, “to two” and “won one”.
Well, for what it’s worth, Microsoft Word’s Spelling and Grammar check (which admittedly is as dumb as a brick) doesn’t have a problem with the “that that” in “How did you know that that was what I was reading?”–but it will flag any other word in that sentence as an erroneous “repeated word” if you double it.
How about four in a row?
A man is painting a sign which reads: “THE LAKE IS that WAY.”
I tell him, “I think that that ‘that’ that you painted should be capitalized.”
Haj
John, where Jim had had “had,” had had “had had.” “Had had” had had a better effect on the teacher.
Er … not that that means anything. It was just the first thing that came to mind.
Another man was painting a sign that read “Fish and Chips,” and he thought, “Hmmm, there should be more room between ‘fish’ and ‘and’ and ‘and’ and chips.”
cow no kau kau horse kau kau, cow kau kau cow kau kau
LOL LOL
I often get a laugh out of SDMB threads, but you wordplay guys had me really howling with laughter until tears streamed down my cheeks this time. I gotta hand it to you for your dedication in contriving sentences.
The two “thats” are two different parts of speech; two different words, really. The first one is a conjunction and the second is a demonstrative pronoun. They just coincidentally happen to be spelled the same.
So the answer to the OP is that that “that that” is perfectly legit.
I saw the longest ‘That’ sentence once, which I couldn’t make any sense of, which had that word about 12 times in a row.
handy – you sure you’re not confusing it with the “had” sentence mentioned by Fretful a couple posts back? I can’t see getting very much farther than “He said that that ‘that that’ was appropriate.”
Or wait… I can see it expanding a couple more “thats” a la Fret’s examples, but one sentence with 12 “thats” I find hard to believe.
How was it punctuated? I’ve heard of “That, that that that that, “that” that.” As in, “That [thing], that that that [other thing] that [verb: e.g., had sex with, “that” [verb: e.g., “polished the”] that [e.g., big-nosed Rasta man].”
Perhaps you’re confusing it with this German tongue-twister (though I doubt it.)
Er sagte über das “daß” das: daß das das “daß”, das “daß” geschrieben wird, ist.
meaning:
He said about the “that” that: that that is the that, that is written as “that”.
From this web site.
I can do six thats now: “The teacher said that that ‘that that’ that that student used was correct.”
Actually that German example demonstrates Mojo’s point. In German, “daß” (or “dass”) is the conjunction and “das” is the pronoun. Although hearing it doesn’t help, cuz they sound the same.
Oh wait, getting closer:
“The teacher had this to say about that “that that”: That that “that that” that that student used was appropriate.”
NINE!
A virtual chocolate Cecil to the first person who can punctuate this:
That that is is that that is not is not is that not it it is
That that is, is. That that is not, is not. Is that not it? It is!
OK - before this gets whisked off to IMHO or MPSIMS - I have to throw in this sentence I heard once, which takes the cake for ‘most consecutive prepositions’ A boy is in bed and his mother has brought a book on Australia to read to him:
“What did you bring me that book that I didn’t want to be read to out of about Down Under up for ?”
Regarding the “had…had…had thing” - you can construct a sentence with arbitrarily many hads from one of the existing ones. E.g.,
“John, where Jim had had “had,” had had “had had.” “Had had” had had a better effect on the teacher.”
then imagine John and Jim trying to remember this very sentence for the teacher:
“John, where Jim had had ‘“had,” had had “had had.” “Had had” had had’, had had ‘“had,” had had “had had.” “Had had” had’ had had a better effect on the teacher.”
(not sure if I got the right number of hads - I sort of lost count there)
More of a mathematical curiosity than a linguistic one, I’ll concede.
These last posts have been entertaining, but let me briefly take it back to the OP. Why do you need two “thats” in the sentence in the first place?
To me, at least, “How do you know that was what I was reading”, means the same as “How did you know that that was what I was reading” - just without the studder.
If one of my reporters had a sentence similar to that one, I would just delete one of the “thats” (It is also what the AP stylebook recomends).
TV
And the Cecil goes to . . . ::opens envelope:: pulykamell!
Because on first read, there’s a strong possibility of misreading “How did you know that” as the prelude to something else: “How did you know that the sky is blue?” Once that expectation is in the reader’s mind, confusion may result. In this case, there is no ambiguity, but one rule that most copyeditors like to follow is that whenever there’s a chance that the reader may have to back up and start again, it’s time to eliminate that possibility.
In short, no, you don’t absolutely “need” the second that, but it makes things easier for the reader. (Well, obviously most readers.)
http://www.google.com/ cant find me anything about this…Hmmmmm maybe its cause they consider ‘that’ as a non-word?