How to Use "Is That Of" in a Sentence Correctly

How to Use "Is That Of" in a Sentence

"Is that of" is a grammatical construction that connects a subject to a comparison, identification, or description by referencing another noun. It appears often in formal writing, academic papers, and structured arguments.

What "Is That Of" Means

The phrase works as a bridge in a sentence. It links the subject to another noun that explains, identifies, or compares. The structure typically follows this pattern:

[Subject] + is + that of + [noun being compared or identified]

The word "that" in this phrase acts as a pronoun standing in for a previously mentioned noun to avoid repetition.

Example Sentences

Here are clear examples showing "is that of" used correctly:

The role she plays in the organization is that of a mediator between departments.
His attitude toward risk is that of someone who has been burned before.
The flavor profile of this coffee is that of a dark roast with hints of chocolate.
The biggest challenge facing the team is that of meeting the deadline without additional staff.
Her writing style is that of a seasoned journalist: direct, factual, and free of clutter.

Why Writers Use This Construction

"Is that of" helps writers make precise comparisons without repeating nouns. Consider the difference:

Awkward: "Her management approach is a management approach that values collaboration."
Better: "Her management approach is that of a leader who values collaboration."

The phrase eliminates repetition and tightens the sentence.

Common Patterns

Comparison to a type or category:

The texture of this fabric is that of raw silk.
His demeanor is that of a person with nothing to hide.

Identifying a role or function:

The primary purpose of the committee is that of oversight.
Her position within the company is that of chief financial officer.

Contrasting two things:

The climate in the valley is that of a temperate zone, while the peaks experience subarctic conditions.

Grammar Breakdown

In the phrase "is that of," each word has a role:

is - linking verb connecting subject to description
that - demonstrative pronoun replacing a noun to avoid repetition
of - preposition introducing the noun that completes the comparison

This means "that" must refer to a clear antecedent. If the sentence is confusing, the antecedent is likely missing or unclear.

When to Avoid "Is That Of"

In casual writing, this construction can sound stiff. Simpler alternatives often work better:

Formal: "His approach is that of a perfectionist."
Casual: "He approaches everything like a perfectionist."

Both are grammatically correct, but the second reads more naturally in informal contexts.

Quick Tip

Use "is that of" when you want to draw a precise comparison or identify something by referencing a category, role, or type. It works best in writing where clarity and formality matter, such as essays, reports, and professional documents.

Improve Your Writing

Catch word-choice errors automatically with our grammar checker, or use the paraphrasing tool to rephrase confusing sentences.

About Rephrasely

Getting your wording just right

Paraphrasing is a natural part of the writing process as it helps you clarify your thinking and suit your words to your audience. Using a Rephrasely helps structure and streamline this work, and our paraphrase tool offers 20 modes, many of them free, for accomplishing just this. The 20 modes we offer are diverse, including a summarize tool, a free grammar checker, a mode to simplify text, and a sentence shortener. There are sentence rephrasers and paraphrase rephrase tools, and we pride ourselves on having both, since our reword generator accounts for context at both the sentence and paragraph levels.

When you google paraphrase you will get a variety of results, from a free Rephrasely, to an article spinner, to a general phrase tool, and it can be hard to determine which of these rephrase tools will best help you complete your work. If you simply need to get a word rephrase, that is, reword only small elements within the sentence, many tools will suffice, but there is the risk that you end up with a tool that does not consider context and produces very awkward and ungrammatical sentences. Rephrasing is very much an art, and we’ve built our paraphrase bot to produce the most correct results in 20 modes in over 100 languages, making it the best paraphrasing tool at an exceptionally low cost. So whether you need to paraphrase deutsch, paraphrase greek, or paraphrase bahasa melayu, the next time you think, I need something to paraphrase this for me, you’ll know where to turn.

From keywords to paragraphs

Generating paragraphs with unique ideas can be challenging, and too often writers get stuck at this stage of the writing process. With our paragraph tool, you can enter keywords and let our AI generate paragraphs for you, so that you can have something to work with, refine the output, and become more engaged in your writing.

A paragraph generator creates links between your ideas, such that the output is sensible, unique, and stimulating, very close to what you would expect a thoughtful human paragraph writer to produce.

Paragraph makers are nice, but what about a short story generator? Because our AI is generalized, it serves a story generator, an essay generator, a poem generator, and much more. To generate compelling stories, you should provide the story generator with useful keywords from which it can develop plot elements, including characters, setting details, and any situational information. To generate reasonably good essays, you should likewise provide the essay maker with details around argumentative positions and any other pertinent ideas. If you more specifically want an introduction paragraph generator or conclusion paragraph generator, you can provide starter text and keywords that will best enable our essay creator to produce them.

You may well ask, “is this essay generator free?” Everything on this site is free within a 3-day trial, so you can test and develop confidence in our products. You may also be wondering where this is an essay automatic writer or if it will take a while to get results. All results appear within a matter of seconds, so you can move through your work as quickly as possible.

You may have professional needs for creating paragraphs as well, such as those needed for cover letter. Most of the time a cover letter template includes information that is not relevant to you; by using your own keywords, we can produce cover letter examples that are relevant to your use case and often require very little editing. By using this service, you can also learn how to write a cover letter and achieve the cover letter format you need.

Plagiarism checker free

Like everything else on our site, you can check plagiarism free within a trial, which is a great opportunity for those who want to check a paper for plagiarism without committing to paying before they see results. This free plagiarism checker is great for students and clearly indicates how to check for plagiarism by highlighting areas of similarity between the two texts. Just to be sure you are not accidentally plagiarizing, be sure to check all of your paraphrases as well.