Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Language Rant 3

The question has famously been posed:  it depends what the meaning of "is" is. What about how many "is"es there are?

Listen carefully and you'll hear people throwing in an extra "is" in certain places. As in:  "The problem is is that the car makes a terrible noise when I put it in gear." Or: "The sad thing is is that I really wanted to make the balcony sturdy."  Those "is"es are extra.  Don't squander them! You never know when a scandal-trapped politician might need them.

2 comments:

  1. This one bugs me but not as much as "a whole nother". What, pray tell, is a "nother" and do partial ones exist?

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  2. Good question. I invite you to do a guest language rant on that subject!

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