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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:
FrozenAteMyDaughter · 03/11/2015 12:53

Oops. Should have read the other 27 pages first!

Hullygully · 03/11/2015 12:53

"my feeling is"

oh dear oh dear oh dear daddaddad

hole digging etc

Hullygully · 03/11/2015 12:55

Perhaps the issues should be separated.

Issue 1: Think is correct and thing is wrong.

Issue 2: Does it matter?

They should not be conflated. It is interesting that Issue 2 is used as a defence by those in the wrong when it is entirely irrelevant to the matter at hand.

FrozenAteMyDaughter · 03/11/2015 13:00

Looks like Bramblepie meant think but accidentally wrote thing instead. So you are both on the same (correct Grin) side.

DadDadDad · 03/11/2015 13:11

No hole-digging from me, I was being up-front that it was only my sense, as I'm not really going to do a survey of millions of English speakers. But however painful it might be to accept, what percentage of posters on this thread do you think use thing? It's not small.

And the NY times in print has this apparently: The NYT archive shows 15 instances of "another thing coming" since 1987, compared to 31 of "another think coming". So that's around one-third using thing.

Hullygully · 03/11/2015 13:21

Americans.

They don't count. We all know they don't speak English.

DadDadDad · 03/11/2015 13:32

Hully - maybe you could give us the list of people you like, as it seems that would be quite short? Smile

Yes, it's an easy target to talk about Americanisms ruining British English, but you do realise there are plenty of literate, intelligent americans who speak a perfectly grammatical language with lots in common with what we speak in parts of Britain?

DadDadDad · 03/11/2015 13:56

But, anyway just searched the Telegraph website to see what British journalists do (careful to ignore where they were just quoting someone else). It looked like "think" had the edge but thing was in there:

www.telegraph.co.uk/men/relationships/11630300/Five-things-I-learned-as-an-OkCupid-moderator.html Quote: " then you have another thing coming. And that thing is probably a massive credit card bill. " Shock

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/8599082/Wimbledon-2011-Novak-Djokovic-survives-epic-as-Marcos-Baghdatis-lights-Centre-Court.html

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/x-factor/6169554/Strictly-Come-Dancing-doesnt-have-that-X-factor-for-me-to-switch.html

And this was fascinating - different journalists attributed both options to the Prime Minister when they quoted his speech! Confused
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11565592/David-Cameron-gets-pumped-up-during-speech-on-election-campaign.html
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11566089/Election-2015-sketch-I-FEEL-BLOODY-LIVELY-At-last-David-Cameron-gets-passionate...-and-its-a-little-bit-scary.html

Queenbean · 03/11/2015 14:12

I will fully accept that I'm wrong, I always thought it was thing as in:

"If you think that, you've got another thing coming" like you'd say "you'll get what's coming to you" so I thought the "thing" that is coming again is the thing that's coming to you, if that makes sense

I am quite surprised at so many people haughtily saying "I can't believe so many people are getting it wrong, didn't they even think it doesn't make sense?!" When, to be fair, there are so many words and phrases in the English language that don't really make sense as they've evolved so much over time

DadDadDad · 03/11/2015 14:27

I know Queen, even if it's wrong, thing must have made sense to the journalist who wrote the sentence I quoted near the beginning of my previous post. (And it made sense to me for forty years!).

hackmum · 03/11/2015 14:46

maizieD: "@hackmum

Why?"

Because if you have a think about it, you'll realise that "think" is a noun as well as a verb.

hackmum · 03/11/2015 14:48

I'm shocked, but not surprised, at the Telegraph. It's been going downhill for years.

LatinForTelly · 03/11/2015 15:02

Ooh kindred spirits, maizieD and MaidOfStars regarding 'for free'. I've given up now. tbh. I think David Dimbleby or someone equally erudite used it and I thought, the battle's lost.

maizieD · 03/11/2015 15:15

@hackmum

But it is not a noun in this particular context. The noun should be 'thought'.

I am very well aware that people say "I'll have a think about xyz" and I strongly suspect that even this isn't really 'correct' as what it actually means is "I'll think about xyz".

But this doesn't alter the fact that 'thing' is just wrong...

@ LatinForTelly

I think the real problem is that 'for free' trips off the tongue so easily and is satisfyingly alliterative.

It's still nonsense, though Grin

squoosh · 03/11/2015 15:17

I am very well aware that people say "I'll have a think about xyz" and I strongly suspect that even this isn't really 'correct' as what it actually means is "I'll think about xyz".

It is correct. 'Think' is also a noun. The dictionary says so.

BertieBotts · 03/11/2015 15:25

An interesting thing I have learned from Americans I know is that their grammar rules sometimes contradict ours. For example Brits usually say "I've got a new car" whereas Americans are taught in school that "I have got" is terrible English and wrong. It's because we tend to use the present perfect (I've been to the doctor, I've already eaten, I've thought about what you said) whereas they use the past simple (I went to the doctor, I ate already, I thought about what you said) and we extend this to "I've got three brothers" for acquiring something or stating ownership whereas they would say the more direct "I bought a new car" or "I have three brothers"

To me in most cases using the past simple sounds wrong, especially with "already". "Did you eat already?" sounds awful to a British ear. But "Have you got your coat?" sounds awful to an American ear!

Weird thing, language.

hackmum · 03/11/2015 15:26

maizieD: "But it is not a noun in this particular context. The noun should be 'thought'."

Not at all. The noun should be "think". That's why I gave as an example: "You need to have a think".

"Think" carries a slightly different meaning from "thought". If the saying was "If you think that, you've got another thought coming", it wouldn't work very well. A "thought" is a one-off thing; a "think" takes time. It involves a process of reflection.

hackmum · 03/11/2015 15:28

Bertie: Yes, I've noticed that. "Did you see the new James Bond film yet?" sounds odd to our ears. The one that always sounds really strange to me is the use of the conditional rather than the pluperfect. So whereas we might say, "If I had stayed at home that night, none of this would have happened," Americans would say, "If I would have stayed at home that night..."

WizardOfToss · 03/11/2015 17:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DadDadDad · 03/11/2015 17:56

Well, remember, when this thread is gone, there is always Pedants' Corner which provides plenty of sympathy for those who want to rage - if that kind of therapy would help... Smile

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pedants_corner

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 03/11/2015 18:02

It is very, very obviously 'think'! What was the first 'thing' you had coming?

I actually didn't know anyone thought otherwise - interesting! Hully is spot on throughout.

clam · 03/11/2015 18:54

Let's not start on the extremely irritating Americanism that is creeping its tentacles among us, which is "Can I get...."

IT'S MAY I HAVE YOU IMBECILES.

FinestGrundyTurkey · 03/11/2015 19:11

clam, DS2 is 22 & half his phrasing is American these days - I blame the Simpsons, Friends etc

I keep trying to correct him but it's hopeless

(& I'm another who loathes 'for free'. I don't sin myself but I can't see a way to eliminate the sin Hmm)

clam · 03/11/2015 20:30

My ds is currently spending a year at University in the US. God knows how he'll come back speaking.

CatMilkMan · 03/11/2015 23:08

Back again this time free pages later and people that think it's thing are still right.
I think the people saying think are just trolling like the people that announce gif jif. They know what they are doing, it's just a joke on the people doing it right.