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I know the common adverbial usage of "as is" as in,
Leave it as is.

As a non-native English speaker I found a strange-to-me but common English usage of non-adverbial "as is" and sometimes also "as are/was/were", which I cannot find its listing in the dictionary and in my (basic) English grammar book. With my search in the Corpus of Contemporary American English, I was able to find 4 kinds of of non-adverbial "as is".


1. as is = like

Ride quality and straight-line speed are also impressive, as is the Pro 4's resistance to tread cuts.

Certainly, looks are a factor, as is overall vibe.

As is the case in many academic libraries, space is at a premium.


2. as is = as it is

As far as is possible, populations must want to move and must have active influence.

As much as is possible, we must leave our sorrows.


3. as is = as

We experienced attrition from year 1 to year 2, as is expected in multiyear studies.


4. as is = as well as being

As is well-known, Hawthorne himself was considered a very handsome, indeed, a beautiful.


My question, simply put, "What is this?".

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  • I am no grammar expert to help you analyse the role of the words in each of these contexts, but I am, I believe, a literate native speaker, and you have correctly identified various uses for this phrase. "as" is a complex word in English which performs a variety of odd, fossilised roles in set phrases and other constructions. My small desktop dictionary dedicates a whole page to "as" and its constructions, a good reference dictionary will dedicate many pages to it. Someone will come up with chapter and verse as an answer, but go forth in confidence!
    – Dan
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 1:50
  • Don't think of this as an idiomatic expression. It's just the word as being used with the verb is. as has many different uses.
    – Barmar
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 18:17

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I think "as is" is often used as shorthand for: "as it currently is" or "the way things are now", though I cannot tell you the grammatical rules of why this came into being. This is how it is used in your defining example.

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  • But is it a formal usage?
    – Arun
    Commented Jun 19, 2019 at 5:12

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