another THINK coming

[bordelond]

@Hunter Hawk

It’s being pursued so vigorously because if there isn’t a “salient first thing”, the phrase is completely deflated.

Disagree completely. However, consider the difficulty of constructing an “another thing coming” sentence that doesn’t refer to at least an abstraction in the first clause.

@Hunter Hawk

This is a “lightning” vs. “lightning bug” type of issue–if you’re gonna misuse the language, the least you could do is misuse it well.

Define “misuse”. And what authority is our mutually-accepted arbiter? Consider the post earlier in which 60% of a major dictionary’s editors favored the “another thing” version. I don’t care to appeal to authority for one version over the other. But the 60% tally suggests to me at least that there are two legitimate versions of this idiom. YMMV.

@Hunter Hawk

I think we can all conclude that that ain’t gonna happen.

I disagree here, as well. I think most people can see at least some legitimacy in both versions. It’s disappointing if there’s those that can’t … but life goes on.

[tim314]

@jastu

Back to part 2 of the OP.

Butt naked - 2,800,000 hits on Google

Buck naked - just 283,000

I knew there was a great example of this that I was forgetting!
“Butt naked” probably bothers me even more than “another thing coming.”
Can we at least agree that “another think coming” seems to have been the original expression, and that “another thing coming” probably originally arose from people mis-hearing or misunderstanding the original phrase? If you are willing to write this off as the natural evolution of language, so be it, but personally I find it sad. “Another think coming” is clever, and the deliberately poor grammar is humorous. I see no humor in “another thing coming.”

[Zoe]

Colophon referred to the Collins English Dictionary which lists the usage as slang. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition also has a definition for think as a noun: an act of thinking. The date of origin is 1834, but it is not listed as obsolete; it is still in standard use. The example given for its use is "another think coming. This dick does not list it as slang usage. It is not ungrammatical since it is a noun.

bordelond: Cites are nice, but there are cases when they are significantly behind the curve. In matters linguistic, what is actually being said by the hoi polloi trumps what authorities think ought to be being said.

That depends on what you mean by “trumps.” Language that is used commonly but which is not yet considered “standard” by lexicographers and lexicologists is often included in dictionaries but designated “non-standard.” Common use means just that – common, not correct.

bordelond: You’re approaching this too logically, Language change does not follow logic, nor has it ever.

Changes don’t happen because of logic, but sometimes the explanations for usage can be made very systematically and logically.

tadc: “decimate”. Commonly used to mean “nearly wiped out” when in fact means only “ten percent killed”.

It also still means nearly wiped out (according to Webster’s).

Trigonal Planar, I grew up hearing the “k” in think with no problem. We can’t just choose words because we can hear the endings better and disregard the actual meanings. Thing is vague and meaningless in the sentence in question. If you disagree with me and say to me, “You’re wrong, Zoe. You’ve got another thing coming,” I have absolutely no idea what you mean! But if you say, “You’re wrong, Zoe. You’ve got another think coming,” then I know that I’m going to have to think twice about what I have said.

Reality Chuck A+ from an old English teecha.

[Zoe]

I’ve just recalled another way in which I have used the noun think:

When I am uncertain about something, I sometimes say, “Let me give it a think.”

Is this usage familiar to anyone else?

[Burnt_Sugar]

Another vote for “think”; I’ve always said “think” and “thing” sounds nonsensical to me.

By the way, I’m 20 and Aussie.

[Burnt_Sugar]

@Zoe

I’ve just recalled another way in which I have used the noun think:

When I am uncertain about something, I sometimes say, “Let me give it a think.”

Is this usage familiar to anyone else?

Yep, that sounds familiar. Another example: “I’ll have a think and tell you later (my decision).”

[Colophon]

Another example where the wrong expression gets more hits than the right one (and it’s one that jars with me too)

“do it off your own bat” - 19 hits

“do it off your own back” - 44 hits

and

“do it off my own bat” - 7 hits

“do it off my own back” - 26 hits

and

“off my own bat” - 466 hits

“off my own back” - 880 hits.
I’d love to know what these people think “off my own back” means… :smack:

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

@GuanoLad

I’ve heard both, but as “another think coming” sounds grammatically atrocious (it should be “another thought coming” surely?) I have always assumed the correct phrase was “another thing coming”. Using the rationale that Lamar Mundane suggested.

When I was a kid, I actually heard phrase used by some old chaps. “If [pronoun] think(s) this, [pronoun]'s got another thought coming.”

[JRootabega]

@Zoe

Thing is vague and meaningless in the sentence in question.

Actually it is quite not either of those things, based on the context. It has been explained well already in previous posts.

@Zoe

If you disagree with me and say to me, “You’re wrong, Zoe. You’ve got another thing coming,” I have absolutely no idea what you mean!

I know exactly what is meant, so do many, many, many other people, and I bet that someone who has never heard either phrase would be able to figure it out.

[bordelond]

@Zoe

That depends on what you mean by “trumps.” Language that is used commonly but which is not yet considered “standard” by lexicographers and lexicologists is often included in dictionaries but designated “non-standard.” Common use means just that – common, not correct.

You will not find a cite for “another thing coming” that marks it as non-standard. But if you are content to appeal to authority, consider the following from http://www.english-usage.com/faq.html :

“If you think that, you have another think coming” means “You are
mistaken and will soon have to alter your opinion”. This is now
sometimes heard with “thing” in place of “think”, but “think” is the
older version. Eric Partridge, in A Dictionary of Catch Phrases,
gives the phrase as “you have another guess coming”, “US: since the
1920s, if not a decade or two earlier”. Clearly “think” is closer
to “guess” than “thing” is. The OED gives a citation with “think”
from 1937, and no evidence for “thing”. Merriam-Webster Editorial
Department writes: “When an informal poll was conducted here at
Merriam-Webster, about 60% of our editors favored ‘thing’ over
‘think,’ a result that runs counter to our written evidence.”

If all that is needed for an idiom to be considered correct usage is that it have earlier written citations, isn’t every word of English we speak or write incorrect since it diverges so drastically from the English of Beowulf?

@Zoe

Changes don’t happen because of logic, but sometimes the explanations for usage can be made very systematically and logically.

So long as speaker and hearer understand the idiom, usage need not be explained or justified - it need only be descibed. That said, both “think” and “think” have reasonable explanations.

Can you at least agree that if you had grown up hearing and reading “another thing coming” that you would be accustomed to its use?

[Shrinking_Violet]

Another Brit here who has never heard the “thing” version before this thread, but was told endlessly by my mother “you’ve got another think coming”. :rolleyes:

There definitely seems to be a US v Brit / Aussie divide here. Which version do Canadians tend to use?

[adirondack_mike]

If youse tinks that ‘tink’ and ‘tink’ are the same tink, youse got another tink coming!

Ja, dats vat I says.

I tink.

[Shrinking_Violet]

Well, you little tinker.

[gentle]

@tadc

“decimate”. Commonly used to mean “nearly wiped out” when in fact means only “ten percent killed”.

Wrong.

[Hilarity_N.Suze]

@tim314

I often hear the expression “You’ve got another thing coming.” However, I’m fairly convinced that the correct expression is “You’ve got another THINK coming.” The expression is a deliberately ungrammatical way of saying “think again.” Using the word “thing” makes no sense at all.

However, if I’m right, it means that the majority (of websites, anyway) are wrong. Google turns up 789 hits for “You’ve got another think coming,” and 2630 for “You’ve got another thing coming.”

So my question for you Dopers is two-fold:
(1) Am I correct that it should be “think” and not “thing”?
(2) Are there any other cases you can find where the incorrect expression gets more hits than the correct one?

(If the answer to #1 is “No” then remove the word other from #2.)

I am an authority,* and the correct word is “think.”

I haven’t read the other replies. If they say “thing” is correct, they are just wrong. They are hearing it wrong or they are thinking it wrong. The construction of this idiom thus: “If you think . . . you’ve got another think coming.” In other words, you’re wrong.

Of course the English language is extremely flexible. But–as an editor–I feel you ought to at least try to get it right, and if you don’t know how to get it right, hire a professional. (Like me!)

But lots of times people get it wrong, either through misspelling or mishearing. Examples: hair-brained (instead of hare-brained), waiting with baited breath (instead of bated breath), pouring over a book (pouring what over a book? You mean poring and one of my all-time favorites, towing the line.

*degrees, continuing education in the form of reading 500 books a year, plus magazines, scored 98% on AP editing test, currently working as an editor

[BlackKnight]

@Colophon

I’d love to know what these people think “off my own back” means… :smack:

I’d love to know what “off my own bat” means.

Oh, and before this thread I had never, ever heard of “another think coming”; nor have I ever read it typed or written that way. It sounds very, very wrong.

[Colophon]

Give up now, Cicada2003.

I am also a professional copy editor, but if this thread has taught me anything, it’s that this phrase has taken on a life of its own. That said, if “another thing coming” cropped up in anything I was editing, it would rapidly feel the sharp end of my red pencil.

Oh, and DarkKnight, see here. I assume the phrase originated in the game of cricket.

[lynxie]

@Shrinking Violet

Another Brit here who has never heard the “thing” version before this thread, but was told endlessly by my mother “you’ve got another think coming”. :rolleyes:

There definitely seems to be a US v Brit / Aussie divide here. Which version do Canadians tend to use?

Well, this Canadian uses think!

[Israfel]

To me, the two phrases have a slightly different meaning:

Supposin’ you’re 5 and your mom says:
“If you think you can glue your baseball cards all over the wall and get away with it, then you have another thing coming” - that means she’s about to beat the crap out of you.

If she says,
“If you think you can glue your baseball cards all over the wall and get away with it, then you have another think coming” that means you’re going to spend the next couple of hours scrubbing down the walls.

That is to say, the first implies to me that the speaker is about to make things very unpleasant, whereas the second version implies that the “speakee” is going to have to reverse his course of action.

…or something like that, I don’t know. :wally

[Futile_Gesture]

@Cicada2003

I am an authority,* and the correct word is “think.”

I haven’t read the other replies. If they say “thing” is correct, they are just wrong. They are hearing it wrong or they are thinking it wrong. The construction of this idiom thus: “If you think . . . you’ve got another think coming.” In other words, you’re wrong.

No, no, no, no.

You may like the phrase “you’ve got another think coming”. You may think it’s witty. You may think that its obvious grammatical flaw (‘think’ is not a noun) is an in-joke, a play on words for those who delight in the language.

But that does not make any other phrase ‘wrong’. Particularly when they do make grammatical sense. “another thing coming” makes sense. It means you’ve got future events to look forward to that you don’t expect. Events that can only be indicated by a generic ‘thing’. It may be more prosaic, but it conveys more accurately what you are meaning than any fun use of ‘think’. So how is that ‘wrong’?

How about if I said: “then you’ve obviously not thought the consequences through”. or “then oranges are sweeter than lemons.” Are they wrong? They’re plainly not ‘another think coming’, but when did that become the only acceptable way to complete the sentence?