Talk:Double copula

message: I don't understand. Why is, is this usage disputed, disputed, is this usage disputed, disputed? Rintrah 05:55, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: What it is is it's wrong. — AnemoneProjectors (talk) 20:47, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That fair enough, what it is is is (yeah! I scored triple grammatically!). And, ah, ahem, I say, thank you, I say, ah, thank you, I say, thank you for the advice, advice, advice. Buffalo! Rintrah 11:07, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: You're just making it up now as you go along... — AnemoneProjectors (talk) 23:02, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Isn't that what I have always been doing? Rintrah 09:43, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Probably — AnemoneProjectors (talk) 13:10, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: 2006 comments

message: I was wondering if there's grammatical term for this:
*"be being"
*"do doing" (I can't find any linkable sources at the moment, but I once heard a lady (from the Boston area) say this three times in a 15-minute phone conversation)
Does anyone know about this?  Is it disputed grammar?  I would assume that it is because some sources call it correct and others list it as a correct and quite distinct verb tense.  Help would be appreciated.  Thanks. Ufwuct 23:55, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Possibly different topic

message: Is something like this a double copula?
:"I can see that that English grammar is annoying."
--Falconusp t c 15:32, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I can see now that the above example does not apply, as "that" is not a capula. --Falconusp t c 17:01, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Two different uses of that. It’s referring to a previous instance of English grammar, rather than English grammar in general. —Frungi 05:15, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  What about this? 

message: Why is it a double copula rather than simply a double “is”, when “is” (and various forms thereof) seems to be the only copula for which this happens? If this is the case, I propose the article be moved to double is. If not, the article should include examples of other double copulas. —Frungi 23:28, 27 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The article explains about the other forms now. -- Beland (talk) 01:47, 17 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Copula? 

message: I have never heard of this in my life.  Is this actually a dispute?
Does anybody actually think this is legitimate or have anybody ever actually used this ever?
I don't see any way any person in their right mind could speak or type like that, except if he stutters (which isn't grammatically in "dispute").
Wharrel (talk) 07:05, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I've heard it occasionally since about 1983; some people do it a lot.  Lucky you.  —Tamfang (talk) 09:07, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

text: My mom, for one, does it regularly. Must be a regional thing. I don’t know that anyone thinks it’s proper grammar, probably more a bad habit (like the comma splice in this sentence). —Frungi (talk) 04:26, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

text: Enough of this nonsense. A grammatical mistake, however common it may be, cannot possibly pass as a dispute among grammarians. I have removed this, please come back with reliable sources if you want to reinstate it. 114.148.198.45 (talk) 13:32, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

text: For instance, I believe I heard U.S. President Obama do it in the State of the Union address last week. —Frungi (talk) 00:40, 3 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Obama does this all the freaking time.  It drives me crazy.  In fact, I don’t think he ever uses expressions such as ‘the fact of the matter is’ or ‘the problem here is’ without the moronic repetition of the ‘is’.  — Chameleon 14:02, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, it's one of his worst sins. The other day, referring to Colin Kaepernick, he said, "My understanding at least is is that he's exercising his constitutional right to make a statement." But he's not all bad. He pronounces "bury" the way I do. "I have come here to bury the last remnants of the Cold War in the Americas." Eric Kvaalen (talk) 17:03, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

text: I added a reference to a scientific study which found most people don't mind it. -- Beland (talk) 01:49, 17 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Disputed: Is this a joke? 

message: I've removed this from the article:
:Analysis of grammar in languages such as Spanish, in which pronouns are often dropped, suggests that use of the double copula represents a simple dropping of the 'what' as implied, meaning users are not violating rules of grammar.
I can't imagine any analogous Spanish construction. Translating "The problem is, is that..." literally into Spanish would result in "El problema es, es que...", which is no more grammatical in Spanish than it is English. - furrykef (Talk at me) 04:30, 6 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Spanish? 

message: Is the double copula merely nonstandard usage, or is it an error? I can’t see anyone grammatically defending something like, “What I’m saying is is you’re wrong.” —Frungi (talk) 05:55, 11 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, from a purely descriptivist point of view, there is no such thing as an "error". From a purely prescriptivist point of view, anything "nonstandard" is an "error". Of course, most of us have a point of view that's somewhere in between (although many of us lean heavily, sometimes very heavily, towards one or the other), but the point remains that the distinction is very fuzzy at best. - furrykef (Talk at me) 02:48, 12 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I added some detail on the diversity of opinion on that point. -- Beland (talk) 01:54, 17 January 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: The article claims that this construction is "accepted by many English speakers in everyday speech" but omits to mention that other speakers notice it as a grating and incredibly annoying error. 31.51.2.26 (talk) 04:06, 22 March 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nonstandard or erroneous? 

message: If you have a hacked-up program, *all it is* is bugs, surrounded by, you know, something that does something.
-- Peter Weinberger
To me, this one is notable in that it sounds perfectly natural (at least in *spoken* English) to me,
as someone who finds double copulae obtuse. I wonder, then, if it is, in fact, actually a double copula.
Stuart Morrow (talk) 14:01, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: "all it is is ..." is grammatically fine. "all (that) it is" is a noun phrase, and forms the subject of the second "is". 109.157.12.42 (talk) 00:06, 26 May 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  "all it is is" 

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