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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:
unlucky83 · 02/11/2015 11:16

According to an article listed up thread 'thing' has been used since 1919....it has been seen in print several times...etc etc..First cited instance of 'think' was in 1901
itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004971.html.

So actually I would argue they are BOTH right now ...

RB68 · 02/11/2015 11:19

think is right technically but like all these things they morph over time.

DadDadDad · 02/11/2015 11:23

Glad to see Eggcorn Database and Language Log being referenced here - I love those sites!

Allalonenow · 02/11/2015 11:24

squoosh Can you Grandmother suck eggs?

Allalonenow · 02/11/2015 11:24

Grin YOUR

VioletBumble · 02/11/2015 11:27

Can I throw in another current source of rage irritation? The confusion of 'worse' and 'worst' in so many different contexts.

Eg 'that was my worse nightmare', 'thing A is much worst than thing B.'

If I was being charitable I'd blame autocorrect, but I think people are also just hearing wrongly and getting them confused.

squoosh · 02/11/2015 11:29

Alla in the context of your 'scrape groat' and 'pacific' sentence it just read as though you were implying that tenterhooks was also incorrect.

FattyNinjaOwl · 02/11/2015 11:29

Worser is worse!

VioletBumble · 02/11/2015 11:33

Worser is indeed worserer!

clam · 02/11/2015 11:38

OK, here's another current bugbear of mine: lay vs lie.
So are we supposed to let pass the fact that people (many, many of them) think it's correct to have a "lay in" or a "lay down?"

Lay is the past tense of the verb to lie OR it is a verb in its own right, as in to lay an egg or lay a table.

And I think I'm going to have to accept practise/practice confusion, as I sometimes think I'm the only person on the planet who knows the difference.

matchingsocks7 · 02/11/2015 11:39

It's think. 'Thing' Doesn't even make sense!Unless you'd say 'If you THING that, you've another thing coming'. Which again, makes no sense!

BertieBotts · 02/11/2015 11:39

No I find that annoying too Violet. And when people don't "hear" the -ed ending when making a verb into an adjective, so instead of "I'm biased" they type "I'm bias" or instead of typing "scrambled eggs on toast", it's "scramble eggs on toast". Aaargh!

BugritAndTidyup · 02/11/2015 11:44

It's think. 'Thing' Doesn't even make sense!Unless you'd say 'If you THING that, you've another thing coming'. Which again, makes no sense!

How about 'if you think this thing is going to happen, then you've got another thing coming.'? Does that make sense?

JonSnowKnowsNowt · 02/11/2015 11:48

Worserest is as worsely as it gets.

LadyR77 · 02/11/2015 11:51

Definitely think, not thing. Think makes much more sense!

JonSnowKnowsNowt · 02/11/2015 11:52

How about 'if you think this thing is going to happen, then you've got another thing coming.'? Does that make sense?

It's a good attempt at rationalisation, and lots of people on this thread have tried it. But it's a bit of a grammatical stretch. Often 'what's going to happen' isn't actually a "thing" anyway.

'If you think x is going to happen, you can think again'
'If you think x is going to happen, you've another think coming'

These are the only correct formulations. "Think" has a long history of being both a verb and a noun: 'I'll think about that / I'll have a think about that'.

Notimefortossers · 02/11/2015 12:00

Surely 'You've another think coming' is grammatically incorrect? Wouldn't it be 'You've got another thought coming?'

squoosh · 02/11/2015 12:05

Think can be a noun too though.

JonSnowKnowsNowt · 02/11/2015 12:07

Notime - "think" is an archaic noun, it's an old phrase. And it's still used in the phrase 'I'll have a think about that'. I don't think it means a single "thought" but rather a 'period of thinking'.

i.e. 'if you think i'm coming to that party, you've another think coming' means 'if you think i'm coming to that party, you've some more thinking to do'.

BugritAndTidyup · 02/11/2015 12:09

Often 'what's going to happen' isn't actually a "thing" anyway.

Can you clarify that, please, because I think this is where the two sides of the argument are getting snagged.

How can 'what's going to happen' ever not be a thing? A thing is just.. Well, one of the definitions is an abstract object, event or concept. And that applies to... Well, pretty much everything that there could ever possibly be.

I'm struggling - really! - to picture what you could possibly mean when you talk about something that isn't a thing. Because... What on earth could it possibly be?

If someone can explain to me why a belief that an event which may or may not happen can't be described as a thing I'd love to hear it. Or if you have an example, please share.

Let's take the example above of the forgotten tenner and the possible event of its being forgotten. Do you agree that's a thing?

(And while 'think' is used as a noun, it's almost always used to refer to the more general act of thinking, rather than a specific individual thought. But that's by the by to my main point.)

BugritAndTidyup · 02/11/2015 12:11

As an aside, I'm really enjoying this thread. I hope I'm not getting on anyone's nerves or that anyone thinks I'm harping on. I think there's some extremely interesting questions about the use of the English language to be asked here. so there.

Pedestriana · 02/11/2015 12:12

It's not thing. Thing makes no sense.
The correct form is " If that's what you think, you've got another think coming."

(Realise I'm late to the pedant party on this)

OooooohMissDiane · 02/11/2015 12:13

Only a div says 'Think' - OF COURSE IT'S NOT THINK. Thing thing thingy thing thing.

THING.

Frequentblooper · 02/11/2015 12:15

It's "thing" for sure at least in my family and where I come from that's how it said ! or you might be getting mixed up with "if that's what you think you can think again"

KeepitDown · 02/11/2015 12:18

Wow, I've been a "thing-er" my whole life and never knew it was wrong!

In my head it always made sense in a kind of - whatever thing/situation you anticipate happening is wrong because another (ie. different) thing is coming (going to happen).

"Another thing" as in a different thing (to what you expect/have planned), not an additional thing.

However, I am now a convert to the "think" side. I agree that language changes due to misuse, but I see that as a lost battle, not progress. Wink

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