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

It's definitely think
Thing just doesn't make sense

Agree with 'think' - and I can't believe the number of people who said 'thing'! That doesn't even make sense!

clam I would be telling that story to anyone who's listen. Your DH is wrong.

yes, Maidofstars, but have they never seen the phrase written down??? Fair enough on a forum like this 'thing'-ers could smugly think 'Oh look they've written that incorrectly,' but if they ever saw it in a book or magazine surely they must acknowledge that at least two fairly literate people would have been involved in a) writing it and b) checking/editing it, at least enough to raise suspicion and think 'hang on, I'd better check that....'

Also, to thing justifiers explaining the 'thing' as being a punch or equivalent...it still doesn't make sense, because you haven't had one punch yet! so you can't have another one!

• and stop wondering if it's age-related. I'm young-ish (mid twenties) and I know it's think!

Missed the "Chester draws" thread. Shame. I could have related the dull, according to dh occasion when I wrote to Homebase, who had actually sanctioned that offending term on their boxes.

It is think. You had the first thought/think, and now you have a second one coming.

There is no first thing in the sentence, so there cannot be a second one.

QED

Thing + coming means it can be very difficult to work out which* noun people are using. I suspect if you believe it's 'think', you hear 'think' and if you believe it's 'thing', you hear 'thing'.

Hence, lots of people saying they never hear one version.

*Another annoyance: what .v. which

This has shaken my belief in the world!! I can't believe it's think! Me and everyone else I've ever known say thing!

It's think. It's always been think.

It most definitely is not 'thing'. Just because lots of people think something to be true doesn't mean it is.

After all, lots of people say 'haitch', write 'definately' and other such abominations.

FunkyPeacock: "I'm happy to be re educated that the phrase should actually be think but am slightly baffled by the unpleasant turn this thread has taken!"

Ah yes, but you have happily admitted you were wrong. It's people who carry on insisting they're right even when it's been explained to them half a dozen times who annoy me.

I think this was possibly at least partly responsible for "thing" in this context. Bloody brummies!

ha I put this as my pet peeve on the 'chester draws' thread a few days ago! Of course it's think! you've had the initial thought, so the second thought is 'another think.' Whereas there's been no initial 'thing' to warrant a second 'thing.'

It's think. Because you were thinking something and now you're going to have another think because you were WRONG.

I can't believe how many people have said thing.

Steady on! I think it's a bit harsh to judge those of us that thought the saying was 'you've got another thing coming' as being complete idiots in relation to use of the English language - or god forbid on a par with people who say Pacific when they mean specific!

I don't think I'm just speaking for myself in saying that I am fully aware of the meaning of the words think and thing, it just happens that I have grown up hearing 'you've got another thing coming' literally thousands of times! I'm happy to be re educated that the phrase should actually be think but am slightly baffled by the unpleasant turn this thread has taken!

May I join your clique, hackmum?

(Look, I even used "may I," not "can!")

Maid: Well, you, CactusAnnie and I shall have to form our own little clique of people on Mumsnet who care about the English language.

I don't know why, but this subject enrages me for some reason. I think it's not that people get it wrong, but that they insist they're right even after people have explained to them over and over again why they're wrong.

I care, Maid! That was how I discovered it was think.

Another phrase I had wrong as a youngster was "read the riot act". I thought it was "at".

I am so glad DH is as much of a language pedant as I am.

It's think.

(Although I thought it was thing when I was young until I read the whole phrase in a book.)

Apologies, CactusAnnie cared!

hackmum I've been banging on about the relevance and importance of 'another' for a while.

Nobody cares

NoArmani: "I wonder if all the thingers are the same people who say 'off his own back'. That one really bugs me."

Me too. But then yesterday I was reading a thread about whether it's OK to refer to "losing" someone as a way of saying they'd died, and some people kept writing "loosing". WHY? IS IT REALLY THAT DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOSING SOMETHING AND LOOSING IT?

Definitely 'think'!!

Look, it's obvious. How could it be "another thing" if you haven't had a first thing? It's "another think" because you're already thinking one (wrong) thing.

As to the person who said it's a linguistic joke because it should be "thought", well, no. "Think" can be a noun as in, "Have a think about it". It's a slightly different shade of meaning - a thought is a single thing, whereas a think is a prolonged effort.

I was brought up with "think".

I mean, "another thing coming" doesn't make any fucking sense.