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

I'm shocked, but not surprised, at the Telegraph. It's been going downhill for years.

maizieD: "@hackmum

Why?"

Because if you have a think about it, you'll realise that "think" is a noun as well as a verb.

I know Queen, even if it's wrong, thing must have made sense to the journalist who wrote the sentence I quoted near the beginning of my previous post. (And it made sense to me for forty years!).

I will fully accept that I'm wrong, I always thought it was thing as in:

"If you think that, you've got another thing coming" like you'd say "you'll get what's coming to you" so I thought the "thing" that is coming again is the thing that's coming to you, if that makes sense

I am quite surprised at so many people haughtily saying "I can't believe so many people are getting it wrong, didn't they even think it doesn't make sense?!" When, to be fair, there are so many words and phrases in the English language that don't really make sense as they've evolved so much over time

But, anyway just searched the Telegraph website to see what British journalists do (careful to ignore where they were just quoting someone else). It looked like "think" had the edge but thing was in there:

www.telegraph.co.uk/men/relationships/11630300/Five-things-I-learned-as-an-OkCupid-moderator.html Quote: " then you have another thing coming. And that thing is probably a massive credit card bill. "

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/8599082/Wimbledon-2011-Novak-Djokovic-survives-epic-as-Marcos-Baghdatis-lights-Centre-Court.html

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/x-factor/6169554/Strictly-Come-Dancing-doesnt-have-that-X-factor-for-me-to-switch.html

And this was fascinating - different journalists attributed both options to the Prime Minister when they quoted his speech!
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11565592/David-Cameron-gets-pumped-up-during-speech-on-election-campaign.html
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11566089/Election-2015-sketch-I-FEEL-BLOODY-LIVELY-At-last-David-Cameron-gets-passionate...-and-its-a-little-bit-scary.html

Hully - maybe you could give us the list of people you like, as it seems that would be quite short?

Yes, it's an easy target to talk about Americanisms ruining British English, but you do realise there are plenty of literate, intelligent americans who speak a perfectly grammatical language with lots in common with what we speak in parts of Britain?

Americans.

They don't count. We all know they don't speak English.

No hole-digging from me, I was being up-front that it was only my sense, as I'm not really going to do a survey of millions of English speakers. But however painful it might be to accept, what percentage of posters on this thread do you think use thing? It's not small.

And the NY times in print has this apparently: The NYT archive shows 15 instances of "another thing coming" since 1987, compared to 31 of "another think coming". So that's around one-third using thing.

Looks like Bramblepie meant think but accidentally wrote thing instead. So you are both on the same (correct ) side.

Perhaps the issues should be separated.

Issue 1: Think is correct and thing is wrong.

Issue 2: Does it matter?

They should not be conflated. It is interesting that Issue 2 is used as a defence by those in the wrong when it is entirely irrelevant to the matter at hand.

"my feeling is"

oh dear oh dear oh dear daddaddad

hole digging etc

Oops. Should have read the other 27 pages first!

oh, and please don't bang your head - no need to get so upset about a small detail in the messiness of a widely spoken, living language.

Wizard - if you read my post, I said 50/50 based on usage, but I knew someone would pick up on that. I've honestly not done a survey, so for all I know it could be 25/75, but my feeling is that there are a lot of people out there using thing, it may even be more than 50%.

Think is obviously correct. To be fair I have never heard anyone say 'thing' instead.

The question is, how many of the people who originally said 'thing' will now more correctly say 'think'?

It's think. Makes no sense as thing. Anyone who disagrees is just wrong

And "drawers" and "draws"?

I say drawers.

It's 'think' - always was and always will be.

It's like the way some people now use 'been' instead of 'being' - "You are been silly" !!

Yes, maybe I should but I just don't have time to read 27 pages right now! I just wanted my wee input.

Thanks DadDadDad and Ok, Hully, let's move on - no hard feelings. :)

Funny how something can be so split. I genuinely thought everyone would have said "think"! "Thing" makes sense I suppose but just doesn't flow as well for me.

Like pedantic Daleks?

I feel bad now. I didn't mean to be horrible Bramblepie. It was just an observation. People do judge others who use words wrongly. They smile, but inside they narrow their eyes and beam judgement.

Think.

Bramble - don't worry about Hully; some people seem to get really cross about this, but you ought to read the thread. At best you can say, it's "think 50%, thing 50%" based on this thread and the wider evidence of usage in the English-speaking world, but etymologically, think clearly wins as being right.

I alWays thought it was thing.

Think sounds wrong although I can see how in the phrase 'If you think A you've got another think coming' think makes more sense.

I'm not sure I always preface the term 'you've got another thing coming' with the phrase 'if you think...' though.