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.'

But it's not a lost battle, in the sense that every word you're using now has been arrived at through that progress. That progress is evolution, it progresses towards more efficiency

Anyone who thinks "all language should stay as it was, because that is right so you think we should all be just saying "ug"?

I don't think moving forward in time always means our habits and practices improve. I think language can evolve in terms of new words/phrases coming into use, or definitions being further clarified.

But when phrases and words change because they have simply been misheard/misunderstood and then repeated over and over again, I see that as degeneration of language, something undesirable... moving away from clarity instead of towards it.

However, I don't think about any of it quite as seriously as perhaps my post sounds, and I frequently make my own mistakes (see recent "think" conversion).

Cats get spayed

Cats = C = noun
Spayed = S = verb

Practice/licence = noun
Practise/license = verb

I'm sure there are more obvious tricks to remembering it, involving other permutations of C nouns and S verbs, but that one's stuck with me.

That progress is evolution, it progresses towards more efficiency
If you can tell me how a change from "think" to "thing" creates a more efficient use of language, knock yourself out....

Yep, you can say "It's 'thing' in our house" until you're blue in the face. That doesn't make it correct. Look it up (in a proper dictionary, not Google)!

From my Oxford Concise Dictionary:

PHRASES: 'have (got) another think coming' (informal) - used to express disagreement

I found an online reference to an addition to the full O.E.D. which mentioned 'have another thing coming, and said it had become quite commonly used and was based on a mishearing of the correct phrase. It's still wrong though.

t-h-i-n-g

Exactly, MaidofStars! Part of my degree was about historical linguistics. Lots of changes to language do indeed involve simplification, getting rid of confusing or unnecessarily complex things. There is nothing useful about getting one word of an idiomatic phrase wrong. That isn't progress. It's a lack of understanding about what the phrase actually means!

w-r-o-n-g

Well I think it's more efficient and easy to use because THING MAKES MORE SENSE! (and is easier to say)

However I can there are polarised views on this and that's why I said earlier that it's also possible that both are right.

You forgot 'in my opinion'.

The "I think" at the start of my post means "in my opinion".

Interesting discussion here which traces "thing" back even earlier:
jeremybutterfield.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/3035/

It is not "possible that both are right." As evidenced on here, 'thing' is based on mishearing the correct term of 'think.'

We're going round in circles here.

Sorry. I didn't notice that due to the shouty use of CAPS LOCK.

I was meaning to be a bit tongue-in-cheek-rant with my caps, rather than actually shouty, sorry that didn't come across.

Although the 'I think' seems more related to the 'it's more efficient and easy to use' rather than the 'because THING MAKES MORE SENSE'.

I have not rtft

I cannot believe this is even a debate.

It's "think"

"Thing" does not make sense.

How, in the name of the dear sweet weeping baby Jesus, is this possibly, possibly a debate?

We are going round in circles because people find it hard to understand that usage can (in some cases) make things right.

Like in "an adder", which has been explained below.

It was once wrong, it became right. That happens. It happens because of usage. "Right" does not mean "however it started, no matter how long ago that was". A usage can split and two forms can be widely used. As in "I couldn't care less"/"I could care less" which has also been explained.

THING MAKES MORE SENSE

No it doesn't, as evidenced by the linguistic trickery one has to engage in in order for it to make any sense.

But THING is just plain WRONG.

It hasn't evolved like that, people just aren't aware they've been using it incorrectly.

But it is INCORRECT. It is the WRONG word.

People who know the correct words will be looking at the people who are wrong.,

You forgot 'in my opinion'.

Come on, that isn't fair. Read through the thread and you will see post after post saying the opposite without a single qualifying 'in my opinion' or 'I think.

What linguistic trickery?

We're not finding it hard to understand, greenpotato. As someone pointed out earlier, sure, language evolves, but that's a different thing from trying to claim a new word/phrase exists just because a whole load of people have been getting it wrong for years.

I think when you invoke caps lock with such gusto when arguing against the OED an 'in my opinion' wouldn't go amiss.

In my opinion

Internet rule no. 45789

'Think' makes less sense to me because I am not familiar with the use of that word as a noun to refer to a singular thought.

It's not linguistic trickery to infer that something that could happen is a thing. It's a natural use of the English language. To me.

Those who who think it's "thing" have got another think coming. And to think we've had compulsory education for well over 150 years. Just think about it -ENGLISH is not illogical.