You've got another think coming???

Just seen somewhere else that apparently a lot of people think the phrase is "you've got another think coming"????

It's thing isn't it? Yet dozens of people seem to think its think?

Anyway what do you thing?

 

De only peeple dat tink its think talk like dis blud and day is bear retarted.

 

I set up the same poll on another forum i use, currently at 10/9 thing/think.

Idiots.

 

Are you sure that it's not just the way that they talk?

Like some people say 'somethink' instead of 'something'

 

Have I somehow driven into a parallel universe on the way round the M25 tonight?

 

Makes sense " You have another fink coming " slip sloppy abuse of the English language.

 

If you have, you've got another thing coming!:sign13:

 

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/another-think-coming.html

That's just wrong!!

 

Of course it's THINK. The other option doesn't make any sense.

Just taken the New Oxford Dictionary of English off the shelf, under 'think', phrases - have (got) another think coming, informal, used to express the speaker's disagreement with or unwillingness to do something suggested by someone else.

Why would anyone think it was 'thing'?
Actually, I know why. People are ignorant and ill-educated and don't appreciate that words have meanings and if they aren't sure about something they never ever look it up in a dictionary, they look online where someone equally ignorant and ill-educated has written what they think it should be.

When I was a child, whenever I asked my mother what a word meant she told me to look it up in a dictionary and that may or may not have been because she didn't know the answer but it instilled in me the habit of looking things up, which no-one does these days.

 

Thing coming as in a shock coming.

Think? You can't have thinks, you have thoughts, therefore it makes no sense to me.

 

New Oxford Dictionary of English: think noun (in singular)informal an act of thinking I went for a walk to have a think

The phrase plays on the initial think by repeating it to emphasise that the thinking process will have to be gone through again because the conclusion reached the first time is not acceptable i.e. if you think that, you will have to think again, or if you think that, you have another think coming.

 

I understand that, but its wrong.:biggrin:

Even if it is think, thing seems to be more widely used, and I guess that's how language evolves.

 

It's thing. Who on earth says 'another think coming?'.

It's like 'somethink'. ******ed.

 

What a bizarre thread.

 

NO NO NO! It is only more widely used among stupid people who don't understand their own language. It's the same as should of (wash my mouth out) which is more widely used among the same set of people but it's WRONG and has no basis in the structure of the language.

Now look what you've done, you've got me started on a rant that could go on and on....and I've been so good about ignoring the daily destruction of the English language..:rant:

 

Another thing as well; it's 'can't be arsed' not 'can't be asked'.

 

Thank you for saving me the trouble of typing something similar.


On a similar note, my Dad always says "for ****'s sight" instead of "For ****'s sake."

English is his 2nd language though.

 

Why on earth would you tell someone that they had another thing coming? What a bland and pointless comment that would be. Even if it were specifically applied, eg. when you could see the postman coming, bringing a parcel whilst you were visiting a neighbour who was already opening one package, it would acheive little other than elicit more questions than it answered.

"Steve, you've got another thing coming."

Steve "What thing? What do you mean "thing?" Explain yourself."

 

Language evolved by the creation of new words for old things and new words for new things and old words for new things.

It doesn't evolve because people are too dumb to realise that sentences they are speaking or writing actually serve no purpose in the act of communication, which is what language is for.

I can assure you, in 40, 50, 100 years time, the phrase "Another thing coming" will be as wrong and stupid sounding to educated ears as it is today.

 

Spot on. I'm old enough to remember this being a common expression used by my elders who were not the product of Thatcher's or Blair's illiterate education systems (no offense intended).

e.g. Simms, if you think it's 'thing', you've got another think coming.:biggrin:

 

It seems to be a Southern Ingerland fink , because I am sure the further North you go the less you hear the word fink, funny init, well I fink so.

 

:whoosh:?

I always use thing.

The phrase is a contraction of "If you think that, then you've got another thing coming."

It is a reference to something bad (another thing) happening to the target.

I suppose either way would be acceptable and sort of makes sense.

Although I would have thought "you've got a rethink coming" makes more grammatical sense.

Language is an ever evolving thing. If it wasn't then we'd still be saying thees and thous both of which the spell checker now picks up as wrong. I am not ending sentences with innit though, that is just wrong.

 

Being ignorant of the meaning of things you are saying is not the evolution of language. It's the degeneration of education.

Thees and Thous did not go because people were too thick to use them any more.

 

:sign15:

It's also down to poor enunciation, dropping the final consonant. People should try going through today concentrating on sounding the final consonant of every word. You'll sound much clearer, you'll realise how lazy your speech usually is, and you'll make a better impression on your listeners.

 

A North American facebook friend recently wrote 'wait a go!' in their status when their team did well. I had to say it aloud to understand what they were trying to say - way to go! What they had done was to repeat a phrase they heard other people use but because it didn't have any meaning it was just a collection of sounds.

It's like when children have to recite The Lord's Prayer but don't know the words so they make noises that sound like real words - 'deliver us from email' - and so on but don't have any meaning in the context of what they are trying to communicate. Just because children say the wrong words doesn't mean that the Lord's Prayer has evolved, it just means they didn't know what they were talking about. The same as a lot of people on here.

 

There are many idioms and turns of phrase which we use in every day language. Finding out why they mean what they mean and how they came into use is often very interesting and revealing about human development.

Much more interesting than parroting something you hear other people saying without knowing what it means or why.

Whilst Afanof uses a dictionary, there are myriad resources on the internet (outisde of football forums) which can answer many of these questions and also teach you something.

 

So what other commonly used phrases are also wrong then moog & afanof?

 

I've seen lots on here. Obviously they are easier to spot in print than in conversation but you still hear a lot of misused idioms and sports pundits are some of the worst offenders.

I've seen 'mute' point on here when it should be 'moot'
'all intensive purposes' when it should be 'all intents and purposes'
'could care less' when it should be 'couldn't care less'
'tow the line' when it should be 'toe the line'
'seen as' when it should be 'seeing as'

I try to ignore the butchering of the English language that occurs on here on a daily basis. The purpose of language is to communicate and the purpose of words is to convey meaning. That means you have to choose the right word for the meaning and we are so lucky in the English language that we have so many words and can convey subtle nuances of meaning. Just repeating something that sounds vaguely like something you've heard used, without understanding the meaning of each component, is just like Joey in Friends trying to say je m'appelle Claude, meaningless sounds.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqwzvtjeYBQ

 

These are called 'eggcorns' aren't they? Wrong words within phrases

I've never heard anyone ever say Think in that sentence.

 

I think this is more of a mondegreen.

What most people say, and therefore what you hear, tends to be 'another thin-coming'.

 

I didn't know about the meaning of mondegreen until I did a little research, thanks, I also learnt you can have reverse mondegreen.

Another good word I can throw into a general conversation:biggrin:

 

the thinkers' are correct and the thingers' are illegal immigrants and should now uck of to their own country to spout their own bollix....

well done afanof and Moog....:sign15:

 

Surely if the listener/reader understands what you mean, then you have communicated better? You countered your own argument, the rest of it is a mute point.

 

Of course it is, therefore as long as you get the message across its done its job.

But language never gets the exact same meaning across as you mean, for example when you think of the word "Cat", you have an image of a different cat from me when i think of it, therefore we are not talking about identical things.

Thus meaning all language is pointless because we can never convey any of the same meaning as we mean ourselves.

 

That's why we then use adjectives to describe the noun. There is no need to be imprecise because the English language has words for just about everything.