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Pedants' corner
Original poster

Following on from the hyperbole thread...

38 replies

muddleduck · 20/12/2010 18:21

That was about words that we had only read and not heard.
What about words we have spelled wrong because we have only ever heard them and not seen them written down.

I can offer "another thing coming" instead of "another think coming".

OP posts:
Yulephemia · 21/12/2010 10:27

It was only a couple of years ago that I ever heard "another think coming"! I must never have seen it written down, and everyone who said it in my company must have barely pronounced the "k"!

I'm still not sure I believe it's "think" ... Xmas Hmm

My Year 4 teacher used to say "woe betide" a lot and I never had any idea how you would write that, or what it meant. However, it was clear enough that it meant "Don't do the naughty thing!" I'm still not sure if it's one word or two! Xmas Confused

prism · 21/12/2010 16:21

It is indeed two words- woe will come to anyone who does the naughty thing. I reckon it's a passive subjunctive.

UnquietDad · 21/12/2010 16:22

AAAAAGH! Not the thing/think debate again.

It so is "thing"... Here we go...

Besom · 21/12/2010 16:24

I remember writing 'as a pose to' instead of 'as opposed to' and being corrected for it at school. I've seen other people doing it since.

UnquietDad · 21/12/2010 16:26

It still irritates me beyond belief when I see people writing "should of" and "would of" because this is allegedly what they say. Do they not stop to think for a second why this does not make sense??

GrimmaTheNome · 21/12/2010 16:27

Its definitely 'another think coming'.
My mother was a schoolteacher with clear diction so I know, having thus been driven to second thoughts - in fact it would never have occurred to me it could be 'thing'. There is no debate! Grin

TheNextMrsClaus · 21/12/2010 16:27

I was about 9 years old when I finally made the connection between the spoken word "recipe" and the written word, which I assumed was pronounced "re-kype".

UnquietDad · 21/12/2010 16:29

You see, it's so odd, as would never have occurred to me that it could be "think." You can sit down and have "a little think" about something, sure. But a "think" can't come to you. If it comes to you it's a thought.

This debate surfaces on here every 6 months or so and I never come away convinced.

TheGoddessBlossom · 21/12/2010 16:31

Arkansas - never twigged that was actually Arkansaw for ages and ages..

My MIL has loads of these malapropisms, will try and think of a few...

MardyQuickFollowThatStar · 21/12/2010 16:32

I used to think essay was spelled "SA". Xmas Blush I was at junior school at the time.

FiveOrangePips · 21/12/2010 16:38

I wouldn't say another think coming, it just seems wrong.

GrimmaTheNome · 21/12/2010 16:51

Well, UQD and others, if you think that then you've another think coming Grin

OED:
think, n. 2b to have another think coming: to be greatly mistaken.

Just google the phrase and read the hits which aren't just people spouting personal opinions. 'Think' is the original version, but now both forms are extant.

FiveOrangePips · 21/12/2010 17:32

Whether it is right or not, it is not a phrase I would use, there is something ungainly about it.

UnquietDad · 21/12/2010 17:49

In what other context could you tell someone they had a "think" coming at/ to them? You just never hear it.

This is one of those occasions where I've read all the online references in the past and yet I remain unconvinced. I suspect some of them are "retconned". What clinches it for me is that you can also use/hear the expression without the first clause even containing a "think", e.g.:

"Try that, and you'll have another thing coming."

"If you do that, you'll have another thing coming."

"If you expect me to do the washing-up, you've got another thing coming."

etc.

ZephirineDrouhin · 21/12/2010 17:50

For some reason I always thought dilemma had a silent n (ie dilemna). No idea why. And I still can't read the word "misled" without believing it for a moment to be the past participle of the verb "to misle".

Agree with FiveOrangePips that "another think" is horribly ungainly, but with grimma that it is certainly right.

UnquietDad · 21/12/2010 17:51

I think in archaic spelling "dilemna" can be written like that...

BerryinClover · 21/12/2010 17:52

I don't watch TV, and thought it was 'paper view' for a long time.

RockinSockBunnies · 21/12/2010 17:52

Zephirine - I used to think the same about dilemma as well. No idea why I was convinced there was an 'n' in it.

I'm sure it's 'another think'.

BerryinClover · 21/12/2010 18:50

Unquietdad: "If you think that, you've got another think coming" -I always heard it like that from my parents.

UnquietDad · 21/12/2010 20:29

Picking apart my own thoughts a bit more, I've been assuming that what one "has coming" doesn't always have to be a reconsidering of a previous position (a "think"). I've always taken it to mean, "if you believe that to be the case, circumstances will ultimately prove you otherwise."

For example: "If you believe Matt Smith's second Doctor Who series will be a flop, you've got another thing coming..." i.e. the "thing coming" is the obvious, imminent spectacular success of Matt Smith in his second series, and not the naysayer necessarily reassessing his/her position of Smith-scepticism.

GrimmaTheNome · 21/12/2010 20:57

UQD, I heard it frequently:
'If you think that room's tidy enough, young lady, you've got another think coming'

'If you think you're staying out till midnight, you've got another think coming'

and so on.

I had to do a lot of thinking when I was a teenager Grin

RJandA · 21/12/2010 21:15

LOL at paper view.

I thought on American telly when the baddies crossed state lines that they were out of the sheriff's due restriction.

Until I was 23!!

hugglymugly · 21/12/2010 21:50

"another think coming" is equivalent to "you need to think again". It's a subsequent "think" that needs to happen (allegedly) for clarity.

stickylittlefingers · 21/12/2010 21:58

definitely "think"

I have problems with "inventory". I know it's inven-try, but I spent so much of my young life playing hobbit on the spectrum reading it as "invent -tory" I still have lapses in moments of stress.

Also reading Constance Spry at an early age meant I had fantasised about "raspberry soffle" long before I heard someone say "souffle"

BerryinClover · 21/12/2010 22:28

'Gladly the cross-eyed bear' for line of a hymn misheard by children.