Dear Geist,

Are more and more people saying “the reason is because…,” or have I just begun to notice how irritating it is? I’m no language expert but this expression is screamingly redundant, and now I see or hear it every day. What do you think?

Dear Antonia,

Yes, it’s redundant: “the reason is” has the same meaning as “because.” It’s more concise and more salubrious grammatically to say or write “the reason is that …” or, depending on the sentence, simply “because.” Technically the same goes for a related phrase, “the reason why,” but that one is so well established that it’s become idiomatic and therefore acceptable.