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.'

Damp squid! BRILLIANT

How can it be 'another' thing, when there isn't a first thing in the sentence.

There is a first thought - 'If you think that, you have another think coming'.

Ie. I have had a thought - but because it is incorrect, I have to replace it with the second, correct thought - so you have a first and second thought in the sentence. The second 'think' in the phrase is grammatically incorrect, but is an idiomatic usage.

Another think coming

sorry daddaddad but it is entirely nonsensical. Bats, even.

STDG - I disagree with you that think is grammatically incorrect, it's perfectly acceptable as a noun in that phrase.

I also disagree that you can't justify "another thing", as I explained a few minutes ago.

But I do agree that think is correct.

Blimey if you lot really think it's thing, then you've got another think coming.

This is a really interesting thread, psychologically speaking.

It shows how people, once they've been shown to be wrong, would rather change the world than their own minds (which should be infinitely easier but demonstrably impossible).

So (getting back to the OP) who ended up doing the garden, NotMy?

I always used to think it was thing, until I saw it written as think, and realised I had been wrong.

Think just makes more sense.

PS - I do hope it wasn't you, as you are, as has been proven, quite correct)

Surely the grammatically correct word in that sentence would be thought, DadDadDad - that being the noun, whereas think is a verb?

Think. For certain.

So equally, if we say "if you think X, you've got another thing coming" (for anyone joining the conversation, yes, I know thing is wrong), then the implication could be, that there was this thing X you were thinking about, well X is not going to happen, there is going to be some other thing - so that would be "another thing." Flawed, but not entirely nonsensical.

No it's not ENTIRELY nonsensical, I'll give you that. It's just a fairly clumsy and pointless variation on the original (and correct) saying. Once you realise that, 'thing' just sounds convoluted and out of place.

In a very similar vein, I have noticed that some people think that the phrase "I'll swing for him" means "I will swing my arm back and punch him". On another thread I saw that someone's Grandma had swung for the doctor.

I have read all this thread (well, I skimmed a bit over tha last 100 messages) and as I am probably much older than most of you posting here I'll play the age card and say it is most definitely 'think' because I got the phrase from my DM (who was an army child so lived all over tha place) who more than likely got it from her DM (who was brought up in Jamaica where colonial children were taught correct English) and that makes over 100 years usage of the phrase

The second 'think' is a grammar joke. It's deliberately ungrammatical, it should be 'thought' but 'think' sounds better..

So there!

I saw that, MrsJoy! I guess people are mixing up "I took a swing at him" with "I could have swung for him".

It is think. No two ways about it.

Lalalalala it is thing.
I've even practiced with the other word and I just can't do it.
Now I'm going to report this thread as it is obviously a terribly well plotted troll thread out to fry my brain.

Just proves a lot of people are deaf. (Or daft, as my late Greek m-i-l used to say of herself.) Easy to mishear "think" as "thing", I suppose. She says, unconvincingly.

Prettyinblue I'm afraid you've well and truly shot yourself in the foot in that post by using the wrong spelling of "practice."

When used as a verb, it's "practise."

Yes, it is think, but think is NOT ungrammatical - it's a perfectly well known noun (as well as a verb) so I really don't understand why some are saying otherwise.

As far as I'm concerned it will always be "think". My granny said "think", my mum said "think" and I say "think". I think it also makes a lot more sense, but that's a slightly irrelevant argument as lots of expressions don't really make sense.

I first came across "thing" about 25 years ago and it was written, not spoken, so I thought it was just a typo. I think I still hear it said with "think" more often although I have heard "thing" occasionally.

I've recently noticed the use on MN of slither for a small slice of cake or cheese, presumably because they slide it unsteadily onto their plate.

allalone my DH says that all the time - though his definition of a slither of cake changes all the time too

I would have garrotted him by now mowglik and eaten all the myself!