by Jennie Ruby
An absolute epidemic of is, is is sweeping the airwaves and our personal conversations. What this phenomenon is, is the use of is twice in a row when defining something. And this usage is incorrect. This problem arises because people are leaving out the word that in noun clauses after the verb is.
When the word that is left out, a pause is needed to indicate that what follows is a noun clause. A comma correctly indicates the pause:
But having left out the word that and paused, apparently people are still feeling the need for a word to smooth over the transition, and we then hear that second, redundant is:
Or even
Years of experience have taught me that railing at TV commentators for such solecisms, or even worse, calling friends and family out on their sloppy sentence structure, does nothing for either their grammar or my reputation for being a fun person. So what are wordsmiths to do? Just don't perpetuate the double-is usage in writing. Then maybe this epidemic will pass without causing any permanent harm to our language.
Join Jennie online February 5, 2010 where she'll be teaching Writing Training Documents and eLearning Scripts.An absolute epidemic of is, is is sweeping the airwaves and our personal conversations. What this phenomenon is, is the use of is twice in a row when defining something. And this usage is incorrect. This problem arises because people are leaving out the word that in noun clauses after the verb is.
The problem is that restaurants must stay open into the early morning hours to compete. [correct use of that to introduce the noun clause, a clause that is the explanation or definition of something]
When the word that is left out, a pause is needed to indicate that what follows is a noun clause. A comma correctly indicates the pause:
The problem is, restaurants must stay open into the early morning hours to compete. [correct use of comma to indicate the needed pause]
But having left out the word that and paused, apparently people are still feeling the need for a word to smooth over the transition, and we then hear that second, redundant is:
The problem is, is restaurants must stay open into the early morning hours to compete. [the redundant is, is problem]
Or even
The problem is, is that restaurants must stay open into the early morning hours to compete. [adding insult to injury, some speakers are putting the word that back in even after the is, is construction!]
Years of experience have taught me that railing at TV commentators for such solecisms, or even worse, calling friends and family out on their sloppy sentence structure, does nothing for either their grammar or my reputation for being a fun person. So what are wordsmiths to do? Just don't perpetuate the double-is usage in writing. Then maybe this epidemic will pass without causing any permanent harm to our language.
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About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Editing with Word 2003 and Acrobat 7" and "Editing with MS Word 2007" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.
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