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

[NotMyRealName2015]

I’ll clarify

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.
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.'

No, it's not a North/South thing. It's an ignorance/informed thing, which is of course nothing to do with geography.

Pha ha ha clam ignorance....really?

Another bugbear: people who don't know the formal meaning of 'ignorance'

^^The kind of sentence that causes the world to fold in on itself.

at Maid

Was just about to formulate a similar sentence.

Whatever!

All in good fun, all in good fun

Some of you need to get down off your pedalstools.

See, I thought it was "another thing coming" as in, you have something else coming. You think one thing, but you have something else coming. I asked at the dinner table and had split reviews. Either way, I'm red in the face because the hearings been on full blast and I'm too warm. I suppose it's just one of those thinks

I think 'thing' is a northern thing - and I think it is probably down to a certain kind of humour - originated as a deliberate twist on 'think'...and I wouldn't use it as in the OP.... it would be as a threat.
I don't know if the people who use think have heard of being threatened 'you'll get something else if you are not careful'? - a similar threat.

And I would use 'if you think that you'd better have another think' in the context of the op...

A bit like I say 'I see said the blind mouse' rather than 'I see said the blind man' - my dad said mouse, I don't know if he made it up or he got it from someone else but I thought that was the saying for years until I heard someone use the 'correct' one...

Never heard anyone say either of those, unlucky!

Hang on, hang on, hang on! Reverse....

"Ignorance is a state of being uninformed (lack of knowledge). The word ignorant is an adjective describing a person in the state of being unaware and is often used as an insult to describe individuals who deliberately ignore or disregard important information or facts."

You think one thing, but you have something else coming.

I think that explains why "thing" makes sense very well - there is "another" thing coming, because it's not the thing you thought would happen.

It could mean the threat of violence, but I don't think I ever saw it like that – it's just "you think thing x will happen, but you've got another thing coming" (i.e. something different will happen).

I'm actually a pedant normally and not at all someone who can't tell the difference between what words mean. When I say "thing" is right, I mean even if "think" came first, which I accept the sources quoted say it did, clearly a large subset of people have been saying thing all their lives, and so has everyone they ever knew, suggesting it's not ignorance or stupidity, it's what they've been brought up saying. I've also seen "thing" written down many times so it's not just mishearing. So it seems it has divided off and there are two usages, which both make sense to the people who use them.

This slightly technical language log article says they have both been going since 1919 and "you've got another thing coming" gets more google hits. That could be because of the Judas Priest song though, so I just tested:

"then you've got another think coming" and
"then you've got another thing coming"

(to try to get rid of the hits for the song)

Thing seems to win in common usage.

yambe. You hadn't read all of the thread before you posted have you?

Some of you need to get down off your pedalstools

Because if you don't this thread will be a damp squid.

Good work opehelia.

I'm going to get some rest bite from this discussion.

"I've also seen "thing" written down many times so it's not just mishearing."

That doesn't disprove mis-hearing. All it means is that people have mis-heard it in the past and written it down as they think that is the term.

"and so has everyone they ever knew"
I'd dispute that, too. It's not such a common phrase that I would have much idea if "everyone I've ever known" uses the correct form or not. I've never run a poll. It's an easy claim to make, but not one which can easily be verified.

I said that because plenty of people on this thread have described never having even been aware of the other usage from the one they use - both ways round.

It's another "think" coming. As in, another thought.

Sigh.

I saw someone recently write "same-o, same-o" instead of "same old, same old." And "butt naked" instead of "buck naked."

I've always been very aware of the usage of 'thing', I've just always known it was wrong.

This thread has me on tenderhooks...

My mind is blown!

Arrggghhh! Tenderhooks is one of the few things that brings out the grammar hammer in me!

My mind is blown!
I'm not for one minute arguing with the 'think'ers, but I was 100% sure it was 'thing' until reading this thread (I think I'd always understood it as some kind of veiled threat, as mentioned by PPs). I don't think I've ever heard anyone day 'another think', but I will listen out from now on!!

okay, greenpotato, I do actually agree, starky's explanation makes partial sense (although I still think if you used it in an actual sentence it wouldn't really work)...but just because you can justify something doesn't mean it's right.

Someone upthread used the example of 'free reign' as another common error - I actually think that would make perfect sense in the context it is (wrongly) used, as a king/queen back in the day would be the ultimate power and be able to do what ever they liked during the course of their reign, i.e. reign freely. BUT... I know the saying is actually free rein, and therefore, although I can make up a plausible reason for saying free reign, I don't, because it's wrong!