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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:
AbeSaidYes · 03/11/2015 07:35

Wow, so many of the first responses are so wrong. It's definitely think.

d270r0 · 03/11/2015 07:33

I'm sure its thing

DadDadDad · 03/11/2015 00:17

I've started another thread just to branch off from the whole thing / think debate to raise other misconstrued phrases - I wonder if I'll trip anyone up? (Obviously not the illustrious posters on this thread. Grin).

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2500298-If-you-thought-that-was-the-end-youve-got-another-think-coming-More-language-errors-to-discuss

80sMum · 02/11/2015 23:20

"I haven't read the last 15 pages since my last comment but I just wanted to say that everyone that thinks it's "think" is still wrong."

Very funny catmilkman! Grin I shall not rise to the bait though!

CalmYoBadSelf · 02/11/2015 23:01

The English language is being mangled nowadays. Recently I have heard:

He apologised profoundly (instead of profusely)
He did it defiantly (instead of definitely)
For all intensive purposes (intents and purposes)
Slither/sliver
The me/myself issue
...and the one that really winds me up in work "Can you waiver the charge?" No because a waiver is a noun, the verb is to waive so I could arrange a waiver or waive the cost but I CANNOT FUCKING WAIVER ANYTHING!" Angry

CactusAnnie · 02/11/2015 23:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MaidOfStars · 02/11/2015 22:58

I'm not going to listen to the opinion of someone who writes 'everyone that'...

CatMilkMan · 02/11/2015 22:54

I haven't read the last 15 pages since my last comment but I just wanted to say that everyone that thinks it's "think" is still wrong.

Prettyinblue · 02/11/2015 22:40

Pretty sure it is confessed now I've read it back!

Prettyinblue · 02/11/2015 22:39

Clam, tbh I am a self- confest lost cause. ( it took me three goes at confest and I'm still not sure!)

HolgerDanske · 02/11/2015 22:15

Oh god no.

FinestGrundyTurkey · 02/11/2015 21:53

you can forgive slither for sliver though, because of all the v/th correction that goes on in early childhood ('I went out wiv my bruvver' etc)

it's quite cute Grin

Allalonenow · 02/11/2015 21:29

I would have garrotted him by now mowglik and eaten all the Cake myself!

mowglik · 02/11/2015 21:19

allalone my DH says that all the time - though his definition of a slither of cake changes all the time too Angry

Allalonenow · 02/11/2015 21:13

I've recently noticed the use on MN of slither for a small slice of cake or cheese, presumably because they slide it unsteadily onto their plate. Smile

EmmaWoodlouse · 02/11/2015 20:33

As far as I'm concerned it will always be "think". My granny said "think", my mum said "think" and I say "think". I think it also makes a lot more sense, but that's a slightly irrelevant argument as lots of expressions don't really make sense.

I first came across "thing" about 25 years ago and it was written, not spoken, so I thought it was just a typo. I think I still hear it said with "think" more often although I have heard "thing" occasionally.

DadDadDad · 02/11/2015 20:33

Yes, it is think, but think is NOT ungrammatical - it's a perfectly well known noun (as well as a verb) so I really don't understand why some are saying otherwise.

clam · 02/11/2015 20:31

Prettyinblue I'm afraid you've well and truly shot yourself in the foot in that post by using the wrong spelling of "practice."

When used as a verb, it's "practise."

Dumdedumdedum · 02/11/2015 20:12

Just proves a lot of people are deaf. (Or daft, as my late Greek m-i-l used to say of herself.) Easy to mishear "think" as "thing", I suppose. She says, unconvincingly.

Prettyinblue · 02/11/2015 19:52

Lalalalala it is thing.
I've even practiced with the other word and I just can't do it.
Now I'm going to report this thread as it is obviously a terribly well plotted troll thread out to fry my brain.

ozymandiusking · 02/11/2015 19:51

It is think. No two ways about it.

StarlingMurmuration · 02/11/2015 19:37

I saw that, MrsJoy! I guess people are mixing up "I took a swing at him" with "I could have swung for him".

maizieD · 02/11/2015 19:32

I have read all this thread (well, I skimmed a bit over tha last 100 messages) and as I am probably much older than most of you posting here I'll play the age card and say it is most definitely 'think' because I got the phrase from my DM (who was an army child so lived all over tha place) who more than likely got it from her DM (who was brought up in Jamaica where colonial children were taught correct English) and that makes over 100 years usage of the phrase Grin

The second 'think' is a grammar joke. It's deliberately ungrammatical, it should be 'thought' but 'think' sounds better..

So there!

MrsJoyless · 02/11/2015 19:32

In a very similar vein, I have noticed that some people think that the phrase "I'll swing for him" means "I will swing my arm back and punch him". On another thread I saw that someone's Grandma had swung for the doctor.Smile

VioletBumble · 02/11/2015 19:26

So equally, if we say "if you think X, you've got another thing coming" (for anyone joining the conversation, yes, I know thing is wrong), then the implication could be, that there was this thing X you were thinking about, well X is not going to happen, there is going to be some other thing - so that would be "another thing." Flawed, but not entirely nonsensical.

No it's not ENTIRELY nonsensical, I'll give you that. It's just a fairly clumsy and pointless variation on the original (and correct) saying. Once you realise that, 'thing' just sounds convoluted and out of place.

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