‘fault’ or ‘mistake’? leave out ‘that’?

Sir,

“It’s my mistake the car was stolen, I left the window open” is wrong because it should be “It’s my mistake that the car was stolen…”. Is my understanding right?

Please tell me the correct usage of ‘fault’ and ‘mistake. What exactly is the difference between them?

– – – – –

Hi ….!

The two words do not have similar meanings!
Fault – has two meanings: (i) responsibility for an error and (ii) an inherent or developed error in something.
Mistake – an error (of omission or commission) that one makes.

So – leaving the car window open was ‘my mistake’, while the car being stolen was ‘my fault’.

The sentence that you’ve provided would contain both ideas if it was something such as:

It’s my fault the car was stolen; I’d left the window open by mistake. (Error of omission)

It’s my fault the car was stolen; it was a mistake leaving the window open. (Error of commission)

It was my mistake leaving the car window open; it’s my fault the car was stolen. (Error of commission)

About the relative pronoun ‘that’ – Yes, the rigid grammarian would say ‘….my fault that the car was stolen’. However, in contemporary usage, there is no rigid rule.  ‘That’ may be omitted to make an expression concise, provided the omission does not break the flow of the idea being delivered.

For instance, the omission would break the flow after certain words such as ‘hold’ and ‘maintain’. As you can see, ‘Every politician holds that he speaks for his constituents’ or ‘maintains that he speaks for his constituents’, would not present a flow without ‘that’.

I hope this helps.

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