This is the worst thing I’ve seen in a long time

[noblegiraffe]

Worse than Brexit. How can we have fallen so low? ‘Thing’ doesn’t make any sense!

@Ponoka7 "it's a dog eat dog world" is an expression (not invented by Snoop dog!) but people are misquoting Snoops lyrics and saying doggy-dog which is just really funny.

If youthinkthat, then you’ve gotanotherthinkcoming makes sense.

Actually op that makes no sense.

If you think something, the think has already arrived. It's not coming.

I won't have a thing said against Ian Dunt. Or a think, for that matter.

I think early doors and early days both make sense and are two separate phrases. I'd use both in slightly different contexts.

I love the way both sides feel the other way is TOTAL BOLLOCKS AND MAKES NO SENSE :o

Actually op that makes no sense.
*
If you think something, the think has already arrived. It's not coming*

The phrase means you have ANOTHER think coming. Not the think you had previously.

It's a way of saying 'if you think X, circumstances will soon cause you to think something else'.

It means that whatever it is you think is wrong, and that you will therefore soon have reason to change your mind.

(regarding think/thing that is)

'Early doors' is now essentially a football expression meaning 'at an early stage in the proceedings'. I think Ron Atkinson popularised it 'Arsenal gave the defence a good kicking early doors' and linguists seem to think it mutated from something to do with music halls/theatres opening their doors early, or possibly the doors of pubs reopening after the afternoon closed period, back when they had to do that. My personal sense is that men say it more than women...?

'Early days' is much more neutral and stand alone.
You: 'I adore my new boyfriend! I want to marry him! I'm in love!'
Sceptical Friend: 'Well, it's early days.'

They aren't synonyms.

@OhLookHeKickedTheBall everyone in this town (midlands) says early doors too so maybe its not wrong but it makes no sense to me and where I grew up it was early days. As in..."wait and see it's early days". I mean, how can a door be early?

Just to clarify -- I know 'early doors' isn't only used about football, but in its current usage it has emerged out of football punditry, along with the invaluable 'It's a game of two halves'...

Early doors (IMO) is when the doors have just opened or are opening early, for a sports game or concert etc. It means people are just coming in / getting started. So vv similar to "early days" but they have different origins.

I've always said 'thing' and just never questioned it, so many phrases are odd! Everyone I know and have known has said 'thing'. I only heard it as 'think' on mumsnet and it was an eye opening moment I do think 'think' makes so much more sense!

Thanks @BrittleJoys. They are definitely used as synonyms here...well actually they never use days. These midlanders say: "I'm enjoying my course but it's early doors so we'll see"

Ah thanks all, makes far more sense now. I was thinking of it being a straight swap out and forgetting things like early days in a relationship etc.

That's interesting, @Jamhandprints. I'm midlands, too a blow-in, though and I've never heard 'early doors' used in the same place as 'early days'.

Glasshouse Part of the problem is I find 'another thing coming' meaningless. I understand what they're trying to say, but only because I am familiar with the correct phrase.

Having only ever heard "thing" it makes perfect sense to me. To use your example:

Person A: I think Brexit is going to be great.

Person B: You've got another thing coming. Meaning: Another thing (eg. food shortages) is going to come along and change your mind!

I accept "think" is correct, but it pains me to say so as I've never heard it before!

I'm Team Think. Good posts from GlasshouseStoneThrower. It's a playful, adaptive use of language, and I suspect it's not all that recent (seems to have similarities with other transformations of verbs into nouns such as 'have a go' or 'give it a try').

I associate 'early doors' with something being finished/settled/decided sooner than it ought to be in the usual run of things, while 'early days' (always preceded by 'it's') is about something being too early in its course to be finished/decided/settled.

They both can make sense, which is why this is already at over 100 posts.

Nobody cares, use either, it doesn't matter.

'You have another think coming' = you will have to think again.

'You have another thing coming' = you will soon experience someTHING which will make you change your mind/think again.

Really not that hard people!

But PontificatingPsych, there's no first 'thing' to justify the use of 'another'. In your example, Brexit wouldn't qualify as the first 'thing', because the 'another thing' implied in the answer is part of 'Brexit', so it's not 'thing' + 'another thing', it would be 'thing' + 'part of that same thing'. The emphasis is on 'If you think...' (which is the usual formula, obv not neded if you are responding to someone else's 'I think...' statement, but if they had just said 'Brexit is going to be great' you would have to say 'If you think that you have another think coming').

But the whole point of the word "thing" is that it can refer to anything. "You've got another thing coming" just means things are not what you thought. You don't have to talk about a previous thing for that to make sense!

While "another think" does relate to the first "think", it sounds crap. I KNOW it's right (and "witty", ho ho), but it just sounds like it should really be thing, but someone is just being a bit dim and assumes it's think because of the first think.

Oh god! The one time I made the round up was because of an thread on think/thing.

It’s been decided already

It’s think.

Yeah yeah it sounds a bit odd, but that is why it is. Think.

Not thing. Never thing. You’ll sound like some dip shit reality tv star an illiterate dick if you say another think coming.

Don’t be a dick.

🤣

But actually as always said, language evolves and now both are acceptable.

No, that doesn't work. "Another thing coming" is gibberish and language can't evolve to make gibberish mean something that it can't possibly mean.

Obviously it's think, it makes me high rate when I read thing 😉

It's think. Think, think, think.

As pp said there is currently a thread running in Pedants' Corner about this.

It would seem that there are very strong feelings on this subject as it's one of the longest threads I've seen on there.

I always believed it to be thing. If it was think, sonce think is a verb, wouldn't it be more grammatically correct to use thought?