The Thinking Thing

Am I the only one to notice that in spoken English English a (small) change is happening? We have a saying: "If he thinks {something} then he has another think coming." Our Prime Minister used the construct a week or so ago in relation to paying £1.7BN to the EU.

However, possibly through laziness of speech, people are starting to say "he has another thing coming."

I thought the "...he has another thing coming" was the original idiom and changing thing to think was someone's idea of a clever variation.

I always thought it was "he has another thing coming" as well. BUT... I probably do not speak English English. ;-)

It's always been "You've got another think coming" as far as I'm concerned (UK born and bred).

doublethink

I don't understand what 'thing' would mean in that context. I've always known 'think', and it makes sense.

I know only of thing. Mainly from pop culture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You've_Got_Another_Thing_Comin'

>8 MarthaJeanne:: From your link "The exact origins of another think coming are mysterious, but it appears to be an Americanism". The expression was a favourite of my mum from as far back as the 1950s when our language (here in UK) was less influenced by Americanisms so I suspect this part of the link is incorrect. I've always used the 'think' version and can't remember having heard the 'thing' version. As >6 MarthaJeanne:: says the 'think' version seems more sense. That's my think.

As a 63-yr-old American, I can say that I have never heard it as "think", only "thing".

And as a seventy year old American, I can say that I have never heard it as "thing," only "think."

Robert

How interesting. Maybe regional? I grew up in second-generation immigrant communities.

As an 83-year old American, Iʻm in the same boat with
4, 10, and 11.

One "thing" (excuse the pun) that has changed in
phrasing in my lifetime is the shortening of
" X is One thing, but Y is Another" to just: "X is ONE thing." - - omitting the
". . .is another" phrase, and assuming (?) itʻs understood - -
by a slightly greater stress on "ONE".

I feel that the correct form of the statement should be "if you think X then you have another thought coming"

But that doesn't scan as well, so people used 'thing' which is equally grammatically correct, but less intuitive referencing a 2nd object. A "think" doesn't really exist as a noun, but is then a further correction to 'thing' bring back the original meaning of the thought/noun whilst retaining the sentence flow.

I only know it as 'thing' with recent alternatives as 'think' appearing.

In all my 67 years I have only known it as "thing" until fairly recently when the think thing crept in.

>14 reading_fox:: " A "think" doesn't really exist as a noun"
Yes - I thought this was a case of 'nounifying' a verb (my last words in #9 were just meant to be jocular) and therefore the phrase (with 'think') was ungrammatical. I've just looked to see if the massive The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language could shed any light. Answer "not much". But on p295-6 it's talking about 'have' and 'take' and in a footnote on p296 says:-
'Think' appears only with 'have' as in 'I'll have a think about it' but NOT 'that was a good think'.
I'm a bit surprised as it's a fairly descriptive, as opposed to prescriptive, grammar but perhaps the authors are all in the regions that use the 'thing' version. And grammatical or not I still stick with the 'think' version.

New joiner here, please be gentle..

I'd agree with reading fox #14.

I've always thought the correct version was as rf quoted and the 'think' as a noun was a deliberate grammatical error just to make the saying a bit amusing. In the same way one might say 'Well, who'd have thunk it?' Purposely playing with words rather than being unknowingly ungrammatical.

I'm in the UK and in over 60 years I've never heard anyone substitute 'thing' for 'think'.

I also thought it was a pun the first time I saw it somewhere recently.

This is all so funny! I am 58, Yankee born and bred, but now living in southern USA and always thought it was "another thing coming". I just assumed that the "other thing" was going to be punishment of some kind or disillusionment. So, for example, "if he thinks he is going to live here without paying rent, he has another thing coming" would mean the appearance of some unwelcome information.

>14 reading_fox:'s idea makes the most sense but no one has ever heard "another thought coming".

Very, very odd.

So we're not insane, we're just a minority.

I believe that I have heard 'another thought coming.' Unlike Reading_Fox I think that 'another think coming' is a jocular play on that. I doubt that I could prove it.

Robert

>20 eromsted: Thank you so much! Nothing to beat evidence, is there. My old mum would often say "You've got another think coming" - 1940s et seq./ Greater London.

It occurs to me that there is an irritating bit of lazy pronunciation where 'something' or 'nothing' are vocalised as 'somethink' or 'nothink' or even 'nuffink' - Sarf London-speak, I guess. Maybe the rise in 'another thing coming' is an example of faux-posh back-formation.

I personally use 'thing' rather than 'think' and the meaning I'd be giving it is what krazy4kats #19 suggests. If you believe or expect a certain thing then you've got a very different thing coming your way.

I can see the other version making equal sense too as in, you're going to have to have another think about this matter, but I don't like it and don't feel it scans nearly as well.

With it apparently being quite regional it could well be as abbottthomas #23 suggests that 'thing' is a weird back-formation.

But the formulation is "If you think (whatever) then you've got another think coming". It's not "If you believe or expect a thing then you've got another thing coming." The parallel repetition of the word think in the if and then clauses is what makes the phrase.

>25 r.orrison: That's a logical explanation, but logic doesn't have too much to do with idioms. I've heard it used in your "it's not" context my whole life, usually as something along the lines of "well, s/he's got another thing coming," often without the introductory phrase.

I'm not saying one is right and one is wrong, only that there are clearly two different versions. In truth, I never heard the "think coming" version until this thread.

LibraryThink or LibraryThing?

"Think different" or "Thing different"?

SantaThink?

The Cuban THINK?
by Jack Gelber

Of course JG would probably say, "Well Cubans can THINK, TOO, but thatʻs
not the main thing."

Coming in a bit late with the authorities: The OED comes down firmly on the side of "another think coming", citing the first use in print as 1898, in a sports report from the Syracuse (NY) Standard.
It describes "another thing coming" as a misapprehension of "another think coming", but the first example of "another thing coming" it cites (1906) seems to be simply a misprint in a text that had appeared two years earlier with "think". All the examples in both cases are American.

It's obvious the usage evolved. My family members were not English speakers before the turn of the last century, right around that 1898-1906 window. Certainly by mid-century, "thing" was well established in their communities.

Comes down to, as with so many other discussions, whether one thinks the OED et al. is prescriptive or descriptive. Folk process in language is robust.

It would make a good poster slogan for the next movie version of The Thing.
If you think The Thing was scary then you have another Thing coming.

In today's Guardian:

Think or Thing

Interesting that the Guardian author blames Judas Priest. In looking at the google ngram results posted above the earliest written usage for "got another thing coming" was a Billboard chart for a different song with the same title by a lesser known band, Hotel. But the search hits really take off in the 1980s after Judas Priest's 1982 album. Searching without the "got" turned up earlier uses but the ones I checked were embedded in a larger sentence with a different overall meaning (e.g. Another thing coming in the new year will be...). Is anyone certain of hearing the phrase with "thing" prior to the 1980s?

Just now I tried searching IMDB's quotes database. The earliest hit was for Victor/Victoria in 1982. And I'm not sure of that one. Give a listen starting at 2:25 here. She may be saying "think coming" with the k elided into the c.

Absolutely certain of hearing it in Chicago in the 1950s and thereafter. Never heard it as "think" until this thread.

OK. Big revelation here: I am reading To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time! Guess what is repeated several times in this masterpiece of American literature? "If you think…you have another think coming." I just couldn't believe it. First time for me. By the way, I love this novel. It is beautifully written and I believe it deserves all the praise it has received.

Doubt my now departed mother ever read the book but ".......you've got another think coming" was a favourite of hers. Quite a common expression in UK.

My experience is on the, "Think", side.

>36 krazy4katz: Are you getting ready for the new Harper Lee book?

I too loved To Kill a Mockingbird.

>34 eromsted:

I think it's ambiguous because of the elision noted by >34 eromsted:.

I've heard "thin'coming" and understood it as "thing coming", but I couldn't explain why - unless I was unconsciously rejecting the possibility of "think" as ungrammatical. This is, i should say, going back to my childhood nearly 40 years ago. Nobody's said it to me in recent years.

Another 70 year old US geezer here. I always heard "if you think that, you have another thought coming", either southern (family) or region (California).

>38 pgmcc: yes I am! It's been difficult to ignore all the reports in the news about the characters in Go Set a Watchman but I am trying. I normally don't care that much about spoilers but this time is different. I want to come to her new/old novel in complete ignorance.

>41 krazy4katz: I share your ambition to read Go Set a Watchman without having been influenced by the views of others. It is a while since I read To Kill a Mockingbird and I am contemplating a reread before getting the "new" book.

*Quickly putting on my blinkers to avoid any "Go Set a Watchman" comments that may be flying around.*

*Quickly putting on my blinkers to avoid any "Go Set a Watchman" comments that may be flying around.*

Yes! They are everywhere!

>42 pgmcc: >43 krazy4katz: blinkers or blinders? Uh oh.

oops… It's the spell checker that made me do it.

English father and French mother here. I'm American. We always said "think."

There's no humor in using "thing," so why would it become a colloquialism? Using "think" is humorous. We were a family who enjoyed word-play.

>46 Limelite: Well, where I grew up (where they used "thing") it was never about humor, it was about putting people in their place!

It may be relevant that I learned the expression from first-generation English speakers. All my grandparents spoke Polish or German in the home.

I have just finished a long novel that was about how differences between people lead to prejudices and can lead to trouble. Each of the different groups in the story had names associated with their main common attribute. I can see this thread splitting humankind into two groups: The "Thingers" and the "Thinkers".

*Takes cover behind a rapidly constructed barricade.*

>48 pgmcc: I remember reading a book like that, but it was short. The Sneetches and other stories. Star bellied Sneetches, as I recall didn't want to talk to those 'with none upon thars'.

I'm perfectly happy to talk with the Thingers. After all, we can't all be perfect.

>49 MarthaJeanne: I agree. We have to treat the Thingers as if they were equal.

;-)

>20 eromsted: Looks as if it started when the grammar schools were turned into comprehensives. That would explain it.