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Original poster

Has DH got another think coming or have I got another thing coming???

812 replies

NotMyRealName2015 · 01/11/2015 14:56

I’ll clarify Blush

DH and I were having a light hearted debate about who was going to sort the garden out this afternoon (there are weeds growing out of weeds, and we have guests coming this week)
DH said that if I thought he was doing it today ‘I had another thing coming’.

I pointed out the phrase was ‘another think coming’ and that he should now go and do the garden as punishment for his failure. Grin
However, he is insisting I am wrong and that ‘thing’ is the right word. I say that doesn’t even make sense! What ‘thing’ is coming?? He just says ‘English doesn’t always make sense.’ (Not technically his first language but he has a British parent so has always been bilingual and is completely fluent)

MN jury needed. Who is correct??
Loser will obviously be doing the garden. Winner will sit down with coffee and biscuits, looking smug and saying 'you've missed a bit.'

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 02/11/2015 11:39

No I find that annoying too Violet. And when people don't "hear" the -ed ending when making a verb into an adjective, so instead of "I'm biased" they type "I'm bias" or instead of typing "scrambled eggs on toast", it's "scramble eggs on toast". Aaargh!

matchingsocks7 · 02/11/2015 11:39

It's think. 'Thing' Doesn't even make sense!Unless you'd say 'If you THING that, you've another thing coming'. Which again, makes no sense!

clam · 02/11/2015 11:38

OK, here's another current bugbear of mine: lay vs lie.
So are we supposed to let pass the fact that people (many, many of them) think it's correct to have a "lay in" or a "lay down?"

Lay is the past tense of the verb to lie OR it is a verb in its own right, as in to lay an egg or lay a table.

And I think I'm going to have to accept practise/practice confusion, as I sometimes think I'm the only person on the planet who knows the difference.

VioletBumble · 02/11/2015 11:33

Worser is indeed worserer!

FattyNinjaOwl · 02/11/2015 11:29

Worser is worse!

squoosh · 02/11/2015 11:29

Alla in the context of your 'scrape groat' and 'pacific' sentence it just read as though you were implying that tenterhooks was also incorrect.

VioletBumble · 02/11/2015 11:27

Can I throw in another current source of rage irritation? The confusion of 'worse' and 'worst' in so many different contexts.

Eg 'that was my worse nightmare', 'thing A is much worst than thing B.'

If I was being charitable I'd blame autocorrect, but I think people are also just hearing wrongly and getting them confused.

Allalonenow · 02/11/2015 11:24

Grin YOUR

Allalonenow · 02/11/2015 11:24

squoosh Can you Grandmother suck eggs?

DadDadDad · 02/11/2015 11:23

Glad to see Eggcorn Database and Language Log being referenced here - I love those sites!

RB68 · 02/11/2015 11:19

think is right technically but like all these things they morph over time.

unlucky83 · 02/11/2015 11:16

According to an article listed up thread 'thing' has been used since 1919....it has been seen in print several times...etc etc..First cited instance of 'think' was in 1901
itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004971.html.

So actually I would argue they are BOTH right now ...

BugritAndTidyup · 02/11/2015 11:16

But a belief is in itself a thing, CactusAnnie.

In your tenner example the thing is the event of the speaker having forgetten the tenner owed.

GreenPotato · 02/11/2015 11:15

The "thing" in that sentence is the thing you think will happen, i.e. that you won't have to pay back the tenner. But that won't happen and another thing will!

CactusAnnie · 02/11/2015 11:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MaidOfStars · 02/11/2015 11:11

As far as I can see no one has actually responded to this point

Except yourself.

It may be referred to only obliquely

And thus, it makes more sense that the phrase, intended to be pithy, is internally logical, rather than requiring one to "rack" ones brains to come up with a potential explanation.

To wit: The only way 'think' makes more sense is if you see it as a cutesy, clever phrase

GreenPotato · 02/11/2015 11:10

(I agree with you it's weird that some people can't grasp that explanation though)

GreenPotato · 02/11/2015 11:08

Burgrit don't worry, it has been discussed and people have agreed with exactly what you're saying!

Starky said:
You think one thing, but you have something else coming.

I said:
I think that explains why "thing" makes sense very well - there is "another" thing coming, because it's not the thing you thought would happen.

..."you think thing x will happen, but you've got another thing coming" (i.e. something different will happen).

BertieBotts · 02/11/2015 11:07

YY Brufen is like saying calpol to mean children's paracetamol.

GreenPotato · 02/11/2015 11:06

Agree Brufen isn't a mistake. It's what nurses call it, it's what Ibuprofen was originally sold as.

MaidOfStars · 02/11/2015 11:06

Rack = stretch, torture.
Wrack = wreck.

BugritAndTidyup · 02/11/2015 11:05

No cognitive dissonance here at all, Maid. I'm not arguing that 'another thing coming' is right. I'm arguing that the reasons people say it's wrong are wrong.

What I'm confused by is how people can say there is no thing in a sentence like 'If you think that, think again.' It may be referred to only obliquely and the actual word 'thing' is not used, but it's there and it is the thing you are thinking is going to happen.

As far as I can see no one has actually responded to this point and it's driving me up the fricking wall.

Again, clearly overinvested. Grin

wol1968 · 02/11/2015 11:00

'Brufen' is actually a brand of ibuprofen, though, (I've seen bottles of them, monstrous big pink Smartie-sized pills that you need to keep away from small DCs at all costs Grin) so it's not so much a malapropism, more like when you say you're popping a Panadol or downing a Disprin.

BugritAndTidyup · 02/11/2015 10:59

I don't think it's a crap phrase at all. I think it's a marvellous phrase and clearly makes far more sense than 'thing'.

Why doesn't it make sense?

The main reason peope are saying 'thing' doesn't make sense, is apparently because there is no thing in the sentence! BUT THERE IS! The thing is the thing that you are expecting to happen. It doesn't happen so you have another thing coming.

The only way 'think' makes more sense is if you see it as a cutesy, clever phrase. Parsing the sentences logically 'thing' makes more sense.

I stress again that 'think' is right, and 'thing' is wrong, but it makes no sense to say 'thing' doesn't make any sense.

MaidOfStars · 02/11/2015 10:59

I always hear "I could care less" in a very sarcastic tone.