What Is It With Is Is?

Probably you've heard it, the double is. Maybe you use it. I hear it a lot and have a good friend who uses it consistently, in public speech and private conversation. So I became curious and some time ago began a brief, informal investigation into it.

If you look up is in the dictionary, after you get through its history and its forms in other languages, you will find that it is just what you think it is: the third person singular, present indicative of the verb BE.

I don't remember any questioning of the meaning of is by anyone before Bill Clinton's now famous hedging comment when he was sweating out the inquiries about Monica Lewinsky before a grand jury, "It depends on what the meaning of is is." (That, by the way, is one of three Clinton statements to make it into a new edition of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.)

I also don't remember if Clinton ever made clear the somewhat vague distinction implicit in his statement or in any way defined is. People don't usually define is. Really. But for the sake of this little investigation, I'll give it a try. "Is is usually preceded by a noun or by a third person pronoun (he, she, or it) and is like I am, only about somebody else." There. Not bad. I'll stick with it.

As an English teacher, I knew to encourage my students to use active verbs, more active than those BE verbs, to get movement and energy and immediacy into their writing. Of course, we can't avoid is, since it is a perfectly good and respectable word in our language and so useful, especially when referring to someone's or some one thing's state of existence. So, while I might suggest the use of other verbs, I never read through a student paper and circled all the ises, or is that is's? Is-es? Maybe is words.

But when I hear, "The thing is is . . . " I get a little weird. I want to shake the speaker--gently--and say, "Listen to what you just said. Why do you need to repeat the is? Does it double the existence of something?" But the thing is that the speaker spoke without listening, probably, without being aware of the double is

Just this week I heard what seemed to be an educated person do the double is twice (on National Public Radio), once using "the thing is is" and once "what it is is."

I can almost understand the what it is is. Those first three words have become joined in our minds, I guess, and almost act as a single word, requiring the second verb. I guess. In fact, I have heard "What it is" many times alone, and I accept that as cool talk, some kind of vernacular in fashion now.

Still, the whole phenomenon is a puzzle. Is it simply a movement of street language into the realm of the acceptable-for-everyone-in-every-situation language? Is is is acceptable everywhere? I decided to ask some folks. I wanted to be random, but I started at home with my husband--obviously living at the time. The survey was, yes, several years ago.

I wrote out five questions.

1. Have you heard the double is? (Provide example.)
   
2. What do you make of it? Or why do you think people use it?
   
3. Do you use it?
4. Is it acceptable English?
5. Do you think it should be accepted?

Survey results:

My husband answered no to the first question. So that was that, or is, that.

Maybe I'm alone here, the only one who notices this double is thing. I tried my daughter and son-in-law. They have both heard it. Neither has any idea why people use it or where it comes from. Jeff never uses it (he is emphatic), but Lola thinks she probably has used it. Neither finds it acceptable. Lola says, "No. Why should you use is twice?" That is the question, is it not?

Next, my son Andrew and his wife Michelle (so much for randomness, but it was a Sunday night). Both hear the double is among acquaintances and here or there. Michelle has no idea why people use it. Andrew says just about what I wrote above: We've joined the first three words.

He will use is is, depending on audience--those who would neither know nor care will likely get a double is from him. Michelle says it is not acceptable English because when she hears it she knows it is wrong. Andrew says it is acceptable because of wide use. He thinks it is poor English, however. Neither thinks it ought to be accepted as standard, especially in writing.

Paul and Tasha. She has heard the double is, has no idea where it comes from, does not use it, thinks it is and should be acceptable because she sees it in writing. Paul says, "The thing is is that people don't know any better, or they use is is for emphasis--people like me." He says it is acceptable, though it probably shouldn't be. Paul is funny. He is.

Now my husband, who said he had no idea what I was talking about at first and has heard me calling our children and now has a sense of their awareness of something he said he was not aware of--or may just feel left out--has come downstairs and says, "You know, Carol, in Spanish people say, "Lo que es es . . . They do it all the time. That is the same thing, isn't it." Yes, it is, I say, and thank you.

My sister, Lucile (long distance) says she thinks people use the double is because they are gathering their thoughts. She does not use it, nor does she think it should be standard. Eric, her husband, does not use the double is and when he hears it thinks the speaker is likely uneducated. He says it should not be accepted, although he has "no educated reason why not."

Remember, these interviews were about nine years ago. Perhaps these folks have changed their views. I don't know.

An English teacher friend of mine shocks me, mildly, by saying she uses the double is. I didn't ask if it's unconscious use because she teaches high school and hears it all the time or if she chooses to use it. She says it is purely a speech thing, that is, a verbal phenomenon, is acceptable, but not in writing.

Rick, former professor of English and director of Boise State University's Writing Center, says the first three words (what it is, the thing is) are simply noise with no real meaning. They're space fillers, silence fillers.

In an effort to bring this investigation to the present day, I might ask my friend who is a consistent practitioner of this verbal phenomenon, but I am convinced he does not know he uses the double is, and I don't want to make him feel uncomfortable.

There. This is the kind of thing that interests me. Does it mean I should get a life?