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.'

It's definitely 'think'.

Where I live in the North East people routinely say 'register' as 'red chester'. Also 'mortified' for angry, as in 'When DD stayed out late the other night I was mortified'. Also 'paletic' for drunk and 'brufen' for ibuprofen. I know some of these are dialectic but 'mortified' always puzzled me.

Think. Although I always thought it should be "you'll have another thought coming". Having said that it is possible to say I'll have a think about that.
Who did the gardening by the way?

Oh. My. God.

DH thinks it's thing.

I'll miss him.

I'no pretty sure it's 'think' but that's because I say 'thing', which frankly I think makes MUCH more sense. Baffled by the posters who say 'think' makes more sense.

No, it fucking doesn't. Since when is 'think' a fucking noun, for one thing? Surely it would be 'another thought coming'?

entence," If you think you're going out dressed like that you've got another think coming" makes perfect sense. If you change the second think to thing, it makes no sense at all!

It makes perfect sense and I'm a bit confused by the number of posters saying it doesn't.

Put it like this: 'if you think thing1 is going to happen, you've got another thing coming.'

It doesn't really matter how it's phrased; whatever you think is going to happen, that's a thing, and some other thing can happen instead.

I mean I know it's wrong and it's meant to be 'think' but 'thing' does make -more- sense.

Worse still, he said, "oh I know, some people say thing and others say think - those people are abhorrent"

And then: "I think it might have originally been 'think' but has evolved over time to 'thing', so that is now correct."

So he knew the correct word but still prefers to use the wrong one.

He also said that 'think' makes no sense when as pp have repeatedly said, a) think can be used as a noun as well as a verb and b) it is meant to be a funny, quirky sounding phrase with the repeated use of the word 'think' - almost a play on words but more like playing with words.

As a recovering thing-er, I'd like to put in a plea that you show patience to those who are infected with saying thing.

It's only in the past couple of years that I discovered it was "think" and I'd been saying it wrong for forty years. I couldn't believe it at first but with the right treatment (reading websites) I found a cure.

And there's no need to rage at those who say thing. Obviously, think has logic behind it, but language is not always logical.

Quite recently I heard a teacher (the mum of one of DD's friends) refer to a "damp squid". I was slightly shocked! I suppose it shows how often we use these phrases without thinking of what they mean. Of course a squid would be damp, it's a bloody squid.

Quite recently I heard a teacher (the mum of one of DD's friends) refer to a "damp squid".

Guessing she's an IT Crowd fan

Ahem, I've had a think and I realise now I might have been a bit fuckwitted wrong when I said 'think' couldn't be used as a noun.

But I stand by my claim that 'thing' is far more logical than 'think'. Even if it is wrong.

THINK!

Think

Here's another:

Do you "rack your brains" or "wrack your brains"?

100% think!

Ooh tough one Dad. I think I would rack them. Now off to google.

I think that spitting feathers was originally thirsty but is more recently used as anger based on nothing but my own experience

clam My comment re: ignorance was in support of you and aimed at potbelly

People think it means rude and uncouth, but its proper meaning us quietly simply uninformed.

Us quietly = is quite.

I would rack them too but am completely prepared to be wrong.

It's think! Amazed so many saying its 'thing'. Another THINK coming people!

True, Norah!

Maybe the mortified thing started because people heard somebody using it about their partner/child's embarrassing but also bad behaviour and assumed that instead of embarrassed, they meant they were angry. And then started using it that way themselves. "He turned up with another woman, I was mortified!" could go either way.

Paletic sounds like a mispronunciation of paralytic, ie, unable to walk. Brufen is an old name for ibuprofen.

I think it's wrack your brains. Although, apparently, wrack is just an alternate spelling of the verb to rack, ie, stretch on a rack. So both are technically correct because they are the same word. I never knew that before! I had always assumed that it meant something along the lines of search thoroughly, not stretch!

It seems "rack" should be the right answer and has etymology on its side, but "wrack" has been around a long time, and you can probably get away with it. Well, that's going by this link which chimes with what I've read elsewhere: www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/10/wracking-your-brain-vs-racking-your-brain/

OK - let's see what others say. I wait with baited breath.

Bugrit Why don't you go away and have a think about when 'think' is used as a noun....

I suppose also re mortified, most things which make you embarrassed would also make you angry if directed at another person. "I peed my pants and I was so mortified" is obviously not anger. But "He's seven years old and had a giant tantrum, I was mortified!" could be anger caused by the embarrassment caused by the bad behaviour of another.