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.'

It's think.
I also wondered what age the thing'ers are. My nan always used to use you've got another think coming when we were children, and I'm in my 40's now, I wouldn't be surprised if thing'ers were younger.

My DM is from the north GreenPotato so I don't think it's regional... based on a survey of 1!

Language doesn't evolve because people don't pronounce words properly

Yes it does! Not with every single mispronunciation, but over time if the mispronunciation becomes popular and reaches a tipping point, it will take over.

If we're letting the Guardian be the authority on think/thing, this is interesting too –
mispronunciation

I'm also northern and it's still most definitely think!

I know, let's ask Judas Priest!

Thing here (Scottish) - the Thing was father's fist

May I also throw in - heart rending/wrenching?

THINK
DAMMIT!

On that "language doesn't evolve because people don't pronounce words properly" point .....

I give you, once again, my ewt and my nadder ....
now commonly known as a newt and an adder

I find this most amusing - perhaps I'll send to Stephen Fry as it's quite interesting? (weird sense of humour?)

Think! I'm 46 and Scottish parents.

It's 'think'. Hope your DH enjoys the weeding

Think.

Think, think, think.

You win.

Bi have never heard of ' another think'

I'm 50 and have lived in Cheshire,Lancashire and Scotland everybody I have heard has said 'thing'

Of course people going red in the face and going "No you CAN"T use that usage it's WRONG!!!!" are also a force in whether language changes and one of the things that affects the speed of change.

Well, I'm a teacher and I just can't stand by and allow misconceptions to perpetuate. Would love to see my appraisals if I just shrugged and said, "but they all say "we was" so I'm letting it go."

Yet another vote for think.

I ask people for their phone numbers and I'm often told they don't know it because they haven't learned it ' by hand'

My flabber is well and truly gasted.

I wonder if people are grouping 'another think coming' with 'somethink' and assuming subconsciously that in a straight fight between think and thing that thing is somehow posher?

Am finding it very strange that none of the 'thingers' are considering a change. Wonder what phrases I have wrong.

It's definitely think. It means that if you think this, then you need to think again. It's a joke for the literate, if you like, as obviously grammatically it should be 'another thought coming'.

There's no first thing so there can't be another thing coming, can there?

It's think. Definitely think. And the Guardian agrees:www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2014/nov/18/mind-your-language-another-think

Definitely THINK here. I've never heard people use thing.

In our house you always had another thing coming and that thing was definitely a clip round the earholes.

Not Northern, DM isn't a native speaker but DF usually took great joy in correcting her English but didn't on this.

On reflection that could be because she only said it when she was raging with us all though and she would probably have murdered him

Well this has all been a revelation to me! I've always said think, because obviously it is think, but I'm stunned anyone could believe it was thing! How bizarre!

Actually, Annie, I might be!