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.'

Swap is the usual spelling, but according to the OED "swop" is an allowable variant. I've never seen it, but I suppose it's fair enough.

It's 'swap'. You've suffered from poor phonics teaching . Think was, wash, swan, wasp, watch, want, wander, swat, etc.

I've only ever seen 'swop' on MN but the OED has obviously heard of it so I'll take their word for it.

I have enjoyed this thread more than anythink I've ever read in my 13 yrs of MN lurking. I thought 'thing' was a typo in the title and couldn't believe the first few posts. My faith has been restored by the next 700 and I have laughed for the last half hour catching up.

But I am mourning the loss of my toothcomb, whatever I thought that was!

Well, that's why I'm trying to take a step back on the way I (and others) react in the heat of the moment. Actually, it's understandable to get angry at arrogance, where someone asserts something that we know not to be true especially when they ignore evidence in front of them.

I suppose I am more curious about our reaction to someone just getting something wrong in language (maybe out of ignorance or purely as a slip). Why is that so upsetting? Am I really projecting - does no-one else feel that moment of tension or threat even though it will make no difference to my life if say a stranger uses an apostrophe incorrectly? I've read people on MN talking about shuddering or cringing when they hear someone make a grammar or spelling mistake, a very visceral response.

This thread is in Chat so will vapourise in a few weeks. Make sure to hang on to your ire and outrage ready for when the topic rolls around again!

Those thingers are a determined lot.

Well swop is in the English dictionary alongside swap.
I googled it to check as I was very unsure.
And there it was.

Unless you think this is a candidate for Classics - 700+ posts in three days must say something about the excitement this topic has caused!

No, I wouldn't say I feel a visceral response to seeing a mistake (I probably see so many of them it would be no good for my blood pressure if I did). I do feel irritated when errors are justified by appeals to the idea that it doesn't matter, or that the error isn't an error anyway (or both). Or if they underline that it is. not. wrong. when it is (especially as I don't know how to underline).

Part of the reason this has become an intermittently vexed conversation is the difference between what posters consider 'evidence', too, I suppose.

Swop is how an eight year old would spell it in 1986 Swap is correct I think but swop is very English and particularly schoolyardy - I think it was used in some products e.g. football card swop.

Dumdedum - could is the past tense of can so could and can are the same word. When you're saying "Could I...?" I believe you are in fact using the subjunctive mood (a better known example of this tense is "if I were a rich man, I'd...) to soften the request, which because it is using "can" is asking about ability rather than permission. Think about the difference between "I could help you move house" and "I can help you move house". Can is more definite and we use it to make offers, whereas could implies that you have the ability but you haven't really made up your mind yet whether you will.
learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/verbs/modal-verbs/can-or-could

Yes I feel a physical response when I see a spelling or grammar mistake. This is because I tend to "read" text out loud in my head, and the punctuation and grammar really affects the "voice" or tone of what is being written. When I see someone writing without any punctuation at all, I tend to "read" it in a monotone which makes it more difficult to understand. I once read somebody describe "feeling" grammar/spelling mistakes as being like hearing somebody play a bum note in an orchestra and that is exactly how it feels to me. Or like driving over an unexpected bump. It is jarring, it stands out and if I'm in the wrong mood it can set me on edge, even though there is no reason for it to do that. I also find it more tiring to read text which contains a lot of errors or e.g. is written in US English, especially if it contains a lot of phrasing which I couldn't imagine ever using. I do sometimes find myself retorting mentally "No, it's the staff are helpful, not is. Are, are, are." which has absolutely zero usefulness because, of course, the sentence is perfectly correct to the person who wrote it.

When I come back to reading UK English text it's relaxing, like slipping into a warm bath But the calibre of UK English online, especially away from MN is irritating in its lack of punctuation and the propensity to punctuate with lol and kisses. You don't tend to find the same of US English online. People might make errors but they tend to at least try to use rules of writing, rather than just placing words in a line with nothing to indicate the tone behind them. (Perhaps that's why they kiss, as I've been told in forums where x-ing is normal that to omit the kiss is seen as unfriendly.)

Perhaps the thread could be moved to Pedant's corner if people want it to stay? I don't think it's funny enough for classics but wouldn't mind it being kept. Though it's not the first of its kind, and it won't be the last.

"Someone is wrong on the internet"

Just hang onto that and you'll never lose perspective again

'Perhaps the thread could be moved to Pedant's corner if people want it to stay? I don't think it's funny enough for classics but wouldn't mind it being kept.'

It seems fitting that someone should be pedantic about where this thread should be filed!

Talking of "swap" and "swop", this is wandering away a bit from the subject, but when I was a teenager we used to talk of "swotting" for exams. An old schoolfriend recently pointed out to me that teens no longer talk about "swotting" - they just say "revising". Does anyone on MN still use "swot" as a verb?

My little sis, who is at university in New Zealand and 20 years old, talks about people who swot. Always deeply disparagingly.

The word reminds me of the Young Ones. "You're such a girly swot, Neil!"

Chalet School gels were fond of 'swotting'.

Oh yes!! No we never said swotting when I was at school either in the early 00s. It was revising and if you did a lot, or got lots of questions right, you weren't a swot, you were a boffin. I was a boffin. It was not a great thing to be.

It was always swotting in the Beano, though :o

We used 'swotting' when revising for exams when I was a young person. But that was quite a while ago.

(as opposed to 'swatting' a fly, of course)

Nah, Dad is right. I've been pretty cross on this thread.

But I've been off doing Real Life today and had forgotten all about it.

Yes, I've just got back from real life too. bertie thanks for engaging with my question, fascinating answer. Now, back to DS's French homework

You're right. It's think, even though thing in this context is a popular misconception.

Aarrgh; I've just seen another one. 'Nicked in the bud'

Tell me I haven't been wrong all my life to have thought it was 'nipped in the bud'.

nipped!? Where did that come from?