A WORD, PLEASE:What it is is OK, the books say

There’s something about the English language. What it is is that it’s just so flexible that it creates really weird constructions. That previous sentence is a prime example. Notice the “is is” and think also of its cousin “was was” — bizarre constructions, though arguably cute in a Kennedyesque sort of way.

But most people don’t like these. Not one little bit.

“I’m not sure that I can adequately describe what’s bothering me. What it is is — that’s it. I call it the ‘double is’ and I hear it almost daily,” an unnamed reader of Barbara Wallraff’s “Word Court” column in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine wrote some years ago. “How did this weird construction ever gain ascendancy over the simple declarative sentence?”

Garner’s Modern American Usage calls this construction “ungainly.” Lots of other mavens and amateurs think it’s ugly. But — and here’s the rub — that doesn’t mean it’s ungrammatical.

In these constructions, the first “is” is actually part of the sentence subject. The compound — the clause — “what it is” is functioning as a single unit. And this subject, in a sentence, takes a verb: “is.”

The people who say to avoid the “is is” construction have a good point: For most of us, it’s just easier to reword our sentence than to endure the raised eyebrows and harrumphing noises emanating from everyone reading this awkward formula.

So we change “What it is is good clean fun,” to “Here’s what that is: good clean fun” or something similar.

But if you enjoy ruffling feathers and refuse to bend your sentences to anybody’s whim, by all means, use “is is.” But be sure you know what you’re doing first.

The most important thing you need to know is that you don’t put a comma between those “ises.” To do so would mean to put a comma between a subject and its verb, “The cat, is black.” And that’s going to seriously damage the case for your “is is.”

When in doubt, check with grammar guides like “Fowler’s Modern English Usage.”

“Chance repetition of words is a natural feature of the language. Sometimes it happens because the repeated words are just part of the ordinary way in which verbs work: e.g. ‘Of course he too had had a choice.’ … ‘The way in which we do do such things.’ At other times it occurs because the same word is used twice with different functions: e.g. … ‘Whoever he was, the chap had had it.’”

But be careful. Just because “is is” and “had had” and “do do” are grammatical some of the time, that doesn’t mean you can get away with them all of the time. This is especially true with “is is.”

Consider the increasingly common expression “the thing is is.” This is not a case of correct grammar causing awkward wording. This is just a verbal tic. That’s because, in this example, the subject of this sentence is “the thing.” So it takes a single verb, “is,” and not two of them.

“Fowler’s” says this “domino-type repetition of ‘is’” is pretty much limited to spoken English — especially sentences that begin with “the problem is” or “the question is.”

But if you’ve made this mistake in the past, here’s some seriously face-saving news: Among the people who have been busted making this mistake is the former president of the Linguistic Society of America, in a public speech, no less: “My real feeling is, is that there is …. “ the prominent linguist supposedly said.

Me, I’ll be avoiding “is is,” “do do,” “John John” and the rest of this family. But for you, what it is is a choice.