{"id":2300,"date":"2016-09-14T13:15:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T19:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=2300"},"modified":"2020-11-25T11:19:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T17:19:09","slug":"what-is-is-is-is-exasperating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/effective-writing\/what-is-is-is-is-exasperating\/","title":{"rendered":"What <em>Is-Is<\/em> Is, Is Exasperating"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Leave it to academia to invent lofty labels for obnoxious habits.<\/p>\n<p>You might not know the term <em>nonstandard reduplicative copula<\/em>, but you probably know what it refers to, and chances are it drives you crazy. We call it \u201cthe <em>is-is<\/em> hiccup\u201d: the addition of a redundant second <em>is <\/em>in sentences like <em>The truth <strong>is is<\/strong> that the two sides are divided<\/em> or <em>The fact of the matter <strong>is is<\/strong> that they want to disrupt our elections<\/em> or this beauty we heard last week: <em>The big issue now moving forward <strong>is is<\/strong> that rates are rising.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You probably know someone who says \u201cis is,\u201d and there is no avoiding it when your radio or television is on. The airwaves are teeming with commentators afflicted with the <em>is<\/em>&#8211;<em>is <\/em>hiccup. It\u2019s one of life\u2019s mysteries\u2014even to those who say it.<\/p>\n<p>We doubt you will ever find the <em>is-is<\/em> hiccup in print, however. Spoken sentences are one thing, but no competent writer or editor who sees it written out will fail to expunge the <em>is-is<\/em> hiccup on sight.<\/p>\n<p>As this turn of phrase has spread, it has developed exotic variations, many of which are inspired nonsense: <em>What I meant was is<\/em> \u2026 <em>The cruel facts are is <\/em>\u2026 <em>But the difficulty then becomes is <\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>These are seriously silly constructions, but those who say them are not necessarily fools or charlatans. Often these are statements made by sophisticated and qualified spokespersons. \u201cIt\u2019s worth noting that this construction, though stigmatized, is widely used by highly educated people,\u201d says one online grammarian. \u201cI have a valued colleague who can be counted on to use it several times per lecture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So how did it come to this?<\/p>\n<p>Examples of legitimate double-<em>is<\/em> abound in our culture, high and low. The distinguished author G.K. Chesterton used one when he wrote, \u201cWhat the thing is, is not cowardly, but profoundly and detestably wicked.\u201d And a comedian from North Carolina named Andy Griffith once made America laugh with \u201cWhat It Was, Was Football,\u201d his monologue about college football from a country boy\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n<p>Those uses of the double-<em>is<\/em> are clearly correct. And sentences we hear and read all the time would be meaningless with an <em>is <\/em>left out. Try removing an <em>is <\/em>from these sentences:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>How important this is is hard to say<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><em>The question is, is this OK?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>What the point is, is this.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Perhaps the <em>is-is <\/em>hiccup can be traced to sentences like those three. It\u2019s easy to see how, in an animated conversation, someone who means <em>What the point is, is this <\/em>might instead say, \u201cThe point is is this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Could it be that careful speakers, not wanting to leave out a necessary word, got into this bad habit, and it spread across the culture and took on a crazy life of its own? Maybe the <em>is-is <\/em>hiccup is an object lesson in how linguistic absurdities result from trying too conscientiously to avoid them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leave it to academia to invent lofty labels for obnoxious habits. You might not know the term nonstandard reduplicative copula, but you probably know what it refers to, and chances are it drives you crazy. We call it \u201cthe is-is hiccup\u201d: the addition of a redundant second is in sentences like The truth is is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effective-writing","category-proofreading"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5299,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions\/5299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}