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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:
Arfarfanarf · 01/11/2015 17:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BoreOfWhabylon · 01/11/2015 17:23

WILL NOBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!?

lostInTheWash · 01/11/2015 17:22

"If you think I'm doing xyz, you've got another think coming."

^^ This has always been my understanding. You'd be doing a rethink.

Just spoke to DH he says it's thing.

I said what thing is coming my way - what is this thing?

He always understood it as a veiled threat - so it's like a knuckle sandwich coming your way in his view.

He pointed out it should be thought not think - which is another reason he though it was thing.

I think it means where I grew up was just a touch more civilised in that we like the grammatical joke and don't go round threatening each other with violence Grin.

Foxyloxy1plus1 · 01/11/2015 17:22

No question- it's think. Thing makes no sense at all. If you 'thought' something, you must have another 'think' coming!

BoreOfWhabylon · 01/11/2015 17:21

THINK!
THINKTHINKTHINKTHINKTHINKTHINKTHINKTHINKTHINKTHINKTHINKTHINK!!!

So think on.

Wolpertinger · 01/11/2015 17:20

Indeed clam indeed Grin

lighteningirl · 01/11/2015 17:19

Another vote for think I thought OP was a typo with thing!

MillieMoodle · 01/11/2015 17:18

Definitely THINK.

'Thing' makes no sense at all. Utter madness.

I'm guessing as it's dark now, either the garden has been done already or isn't going to be done today...

Dumdedumdedum · 01/11/2015 17:18

Hope he did the gardening this afternoon, OP, because he's got another think coming if he thinks "thing" is right!

clam · 01/11/2015 17:18

Yeah Wolper It's a brave person who corrects the grammar of someone waving a frying pan in rage. Grin

ladypete · 01/11/2015 17:18

Its think.
Thing doesn't make sense.
Most people say the phrase incorrectly though as proven above Shock

Rivercam · 01/11/2015 17:17

Thing!

clam · 01/11/2015 17:16

Actually, Annie, I might be!

Blush
GabiSolis · 01/11/2015 17:16

Well this has all been a revelation to me! I've always said think, because obviously it is think, but I'm stunned anyone could believe it was thing! How bizarre!

Wolpertinger · 01/11/2015 17:16

In our house you always had another thing coming and that thing was definitely a clip round the earholes.

Not Northern, DM isn't a native speaker but DF usually took great joy in correcting her English but didn't on this.

On reflection that could be because she only said it when she was raging with us all though and she would probably have murdered him Grin

RaspberryOverload · 01/11/2015 17:16

Definitely THINK here. I've never heard people use thing.

AwkwardSquad · 01/11/2015 17:12

It's think. Definitely think. And the Guardian agrees:www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2014/nov/18/mind-your-language-another-think

CactusAnnie · 01/11/2015 17:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Jux · 01/11/2015 17:08

It's definitely think. It means that if you think this, then you need to think again. It's a joke for the literate, if you like, as obviously grammatically it should be 'another thought coming'.

There's no first thing so there can't be another thing coming, can there?

annandale · 01/11/2015 17:07

I wonder if people are grouping 'another think coming' with 'somethink' and assuming subconsciously that in a straight fight between think and thing that thing is somehow posher?

Am finding it very strange that none of the 'thingers' are considering a change. Wonder what phrases I have wrong.

EduCated · 01/11/2015 17:07

My flabber is well and truly gasted.

amazonqueen · 01/11/2015 17:07

I ask people for their phone numbers and I'm often told they don't know it because they haven't learned it ' by hand' Confused

MyNightWithMaud · 01/11/2015 17:03

Yet another vote for think.

clam · 01/11/2015 17:03

Well, I'm a teacher and I just can't stand by and allow misconceptions to perpetuate. Would love to see my appraisals if I just shrugged and said, "but they all say "we was" so I'm letting it go."

GreenPotato · 01/11/2015 17:01

Of course people going red in the face and going "No you CAN"T use that usage it's WRONG!!!!" are also a force in whether language changes and one of the things that affects the speed of change.