Double use of the word "that"

[joelin02]

I was looking at some words from Pope Benedict XVI and saw a repeated word "that" and was wondering how this happened:

"It is in accord with this line of thought that that this aid is offered to priests as ministers of the Divine Mercy"

See the two "that"? According to Microsoft Word, this is legal (three "that" would be illegal).

Thanks for any help.

[buggles]

I was looking at some words from Pope Benedict XVI and saw a repeated word "that" and was wondering how this happened:

"It is in accord with this line of thought that that this aid is offered to priests as ministers of the Divine Mercy"

See the two "that"? According to Microsoft Word, this is legal (three "that" would be illegal).

Thanks for any help.

Looks to me like a typo!

Surely, it's arrant nonsense if it's not.

I can see it's perfectly acceptable to say things like, "I think that that was what he said"
or, "It was that that I was talking about", but I don't think the quoted sentence makes any sense as it stands.

buggles (not a teacher)

[emsr2d2]

I was looking at some words from Pope Benedict XVI and saw a repeated word "that" and was wondering how this happened:

"It is in accord with this line of thought that that this aid is offered to priests as ministers of the Divine Mercy"

See the two "that"? According to Microsoft Word, this is legal (three "that" would be illegal).

Thanks for any help.

In that particular sentence, I would say that it's a typo/misprint/mishearing, or maybe the speaker said "that", then got distracted and ended up saying it again.

Two "thats" are fine. "What was that that you said earlier?", "It is that that makes the difference".

There are silly sentences with more than two "It's disappointing that that that that you saw was actually the wrong word".

By the way, I'm pretty sure that using certain words rightly or wrongly isn't illegal! I'm certain I make plenty of errors in my daily speech and so far I haven't been arrested for it!