Zero-marking in English is the indication of a particular grammatical function by the absence of any morpheme (word, prefix, or suffix).
The most common types of zero-marking in English involve zero articles, zero relative pronouns, and zero subordinating conjunctions.
[1] The lack of marking to show grammatical category or agreement is known as zero-marking or zero morpheme realization.
[2] That information is typically expressed with prepositions, articles, bound morphemes or function words in other varieties of English.
], is often used with plurals and mass nouns, although some can function like an indefinite plural article:[6] The definite article is sometimes omitted before some words for specific institutions, such as prison, school, and (in standard non-American dialects[which?])
For example: Furthermore, English has a type of clause called the reduced object relative passive clause, exemplified by Both the relative pronoun "who" and the passivizing auxiliary verb "was" are omitted.
However, the confusion cannot arise with an irregular verb with a past participle that differs from the past tense: The subordinating conjunction that is often omitted: The dependent clause (that) you were here omits the subordinating conjunction, that.