Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

I've been noticing it for many, many years. It most often seems to be just before the word "that". “The thing is is that … ” I've chalked it up to a verbal tic. It seems to happen when people are distracted or their thoughts are racing ahead of their words. I've never seen it in writing, and when you point it out, the person usually denies it. I've never met anyone who thought it was right, but it is very, very common.

It's like “a whole nother” way of looking at the world. Speed of information seems to have become more important than clarity of form or content. Perhaps this is a side effect of our technology.

Wow. Anthony Parsons does it multiple times AND in writing in one of the linked discussions. Cool!

Thanks dilettante for the excellent link. He makes a convincing argument. I must revise my opinion about the whole "is is" thing.

So, now, what do you think about discussing "a whole nother" topic?

I had never thought about this until I saw it here; now I am hearing it everywhere. I was listening to a sermon on the radio yesterday, by a man I hear all the time, and I realized he must have said, "The truth is, is that..." or similar phrases, at least five times in half an hour!