These are actually pretty good, but it feeds a pet peeve: “…if you think we’re going to beat Donald Trump by just having all these plans, you’ve got another thing coming.”
That’s the transcript, and to my ear, it sounds accurate (in that it was what McKinnon actually said, and isn’t a bad transcript). Maybe she was saying that Williamson would have said that, but I suspect that it’s what she thinks the expression is.
No, sorry, people, it’s “…another think coming.” “Another thing coming” makes no sense at all. Note the word that starts the sentence.
The people who say that do it because they think that’s the proper expression, regardless of how little sense it makes, because when they’ve heard it, they munge the ending “k” of “think” with the beginning “c” of “coming” in their ears and therefore thingthink that people are saying “thing.”
I will defer to Judas Priest:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WLcG-DWxfdA
Not that I take my grammar cues from rock musicians, but how do we know he’s saying “thing,” and not “think”?
Yeah, it’s in the title, off the album “Screaming For Vengeance.”
Judas Priest flies their own 747, whereas the Oxford English Dictionary doesn’t even own a Cessna. 🙂
Obama also used “another thing coming” when he warned Republicans about something or other, which made NPR get the vapors and call in a language expert who explained that Obama was wrong. Sadly, NPR didn’t also call in experts on economics, foreign policy, or the Constitution to explain that Obama was wrong about more than just a phrase, but that’s how NPR rolls under a Democratic administration.
Fox News has a transcription of Sarah Palin doing it, but there’s no way to tell if she really said it, or if it’s just a bad transcription by Fox News. It’s apparently a huge thing (so to speak) and I’m amused at the strained explanations of its “logic” by all the people who
thingthink it makes sense.“Another” is an adjective. It is a modifier for a noun.
“Think” is a verb.
“Thing” is a noun.
If you were saying “another thought coming”, then that would make sense. “Another think coming” is grammatically incorrect and makes no sense, using an adjective to modify a verb.
“Another thing coming” is grammatically correct.
It’s not grammatically correct, but it is colloquially correct. It’s dumb to change a clever phrase to nonsense for the sake of grammar.
Fine, except “another think coming” is a nonsense phrase. It was coined as nonsense, and implied that the speaker was uneducated.
It is not a “nonsense phrase.” It is a clever turn of words, though ungrammatical. “Another thing coming” is the nonsense phrase.
Think is a noun as well as a verb. Please have a think about it after reading this authoritative discussion: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/usage-another-think-coming-or-another-thing-coming
Looks like both Rand and Ed Minchau had another think coming! See also Oxford’s American English learning dictionary:
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/think_2
It says “informal,” which is another way of saying ungrammatical, but that’s OK for conversation.
Both links confirm that think can be a noun in American English, so I don’t know why the idiom would be ungrammatical.
One life I’m gonna live it up
I’m takin’ I said I’ll never get enough
Stand tall I’m uh, young and kind of proud
I’m on the top, but as long as the music’s loud
If you think I’ll sit around as the world goes by
You’re thinkin’ like a fool cause it’s a case of do or die
Out there is a fortune waiting to be had
If you think I’ll let you go you’re mad
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
That’s right here’s where the talking ends
Well, listen, this night there’ll be some action spent
Drive hard callin’ all the shots
I got an ace card comin’ down rocks
If you think I’ll sit around while you chip away my brain
Listen I ain’t foolin’ and you’d better think again
Out there is a fortune waiting to be had
If you think I’ll let it go you’re mad
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
In this world we’re livin’ in we have our share of sorrow
Answer now and don’t give in aim for a new tomorrow
Act tough ain’t room for second best
Real strong got me some security
Hey, I’m a big smash I’m goin’ for infinity yeah!
If you think I’ll sit around as the world goes by
You’re thinkin’ like a fool cause it’s a case of do or die
Out there is a fortune waiting to be had
If you think I’ll let you go you’re mad
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing ahh
Comin’ down!
If you think I’ll sit around while you chip away my brain
Listen I ain’t foolin’ and you’d better think again
Out there is a fortune waiting to be had
If you think I’ll let it go you’re mad
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing ahh
Comin’ down!
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
You’ve got another thing comin’
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Glenn Raymond Tipton / Kenneth Downing / Robert Halford
OK, so the songwriters are clueless, too. Big whoop. It’s a very common error.
They are English and by default, experts on the language. 🙂
They invented the language, but why can’t they speak it?
If what’s coming is a surprise that doesn’t lead to thinking, perhaps it’s just a thing.
From a voice coach’s perspective, “thing coming” is vastly easier than “think coming” because you don’t have to separate two adjacent hard-k sounds. “Thing coming” blends almost into “Th….incoming”.
That also likely ascribes how the alternative arose. “Think coming” without separating the two “k” sounds becomes “thinkoming” or “thincoming”, which would also match “Thin’ comin’ ” and often be heard as “thing coming.”
Yes, exactly. And while “thing” is more grammatically correct (in that it is a noun, which “think” is not), “think” makes much more logical sense, and is colloquial. If it’s “another” “thing” coming, what was the first “thing”?
And I have no trouble saying “think coming,” even if some people have trouble hearing the end of one word and beginning of the next.
“And while “thing” is more grammatically correct (in that it is a noun, which “think” is not),..”
I believe you are incorrect.
One can have a good think. I quote from “The Most Dangerous Enemy” by Stephen Bungay outstanding book on the Battle of Britain if you like that sort of THING):
“That night Bob went to bed early and had a think. He wanted to stay alive the following day as well. ……He needed to see the enemy before they saw him, so he decided to forget about formations.”
Then there’s:
2 think /ˈθɪŋk/ noun
Learner’s definition of THINK
[singular] chiefly British, informal
: an act of thinking about something
I’d have another think about doing that if I were you.
Feel free to have a good think about it before you say yes.
Having said that – I know that this issue is a personal pet peeve of yours and therefore you are unlikely to allow yourself to be swayed.
But another thing coming is just as meaning ful and just and correct:
“I’m waiting for my new faucet to arrive from Amazon”
“Well I also ordered something for you for your birthday so you have another THING coming”
With regard to this specific application, it is a perfectly sound use of the word because the other THING that may be coming is a different THINK.
I could care less!
( http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/001568.html 🙂 )
Are you trying to get banned? Next you’ll be saying that people want to have their cake and eat it, too.
🙂
And thank you for reminding me of one of the other of my (entirely legitimate, and on this there can be no dispute) pet grammatical peeves.
You’re welcome. I say that sincerely, but also in the hope that you will post about how “You’re welcome” makes no sense as a reply to “thank you.”
Also, while I immediately recalled that another of your peeves was “have your cake and eat it too”, I confess I couldn’t recall why the expression doesn’t make sense to you, so I dredged up your entertaining commentary on the subject, which I’ll share for your readers’ enjoyment:
http://www.transterrestrial.com/2002/01/14/let-them-have-cake/
I’m surprised to see “You’re welcome” as a “formulaic response to ‘thank you'” is attested only from 1907. https://www.etymonline.com/word/welcome
All I can say to you dissenters is that Rand is right, irregardless of what you say.
I had to check, but no Dissenters have chimed in on this post.
I’m with you, Rand.
O.K. so how do you guys pronounce the eighth letter in the alphabet “H”? Is it “aitch” or “haitch”? Reason I ask is that our Australian National Broadcaster the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – aka Always Been Communists – a government owned corporation) has newspeople who say “haitch” which annoys me as I was always taught that it is “aitch” and “haitch” was a sign of a poor education.
Never heard anyone pronounce it “haitch.”
Come to Australia. You’ll hear it everywhere. It didn’t used to be so but has really caught on in the last few years. Then again it might just be Queensland aka “the deep north”, where I live.
Do the ones who has “haitch” also refer to “an historian?”
The absolute proof of “another think coming” is the alternate clause, “you can think again.” In addition to gemination (not present in all dialects of English), the use of a deverbal noun is problematic for many users (the second “think” is a deverbal noun in “think coming”), who rationalize “thing coming” as an appropriate noun.
My big fingernails on chalkboard peeve is “The proof is in the pudding.” Really? And how did the proof get in the pudding? Butterfingers? The aphorism is, of course, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
I do use “an” before “h,” due to the softness of the consonant. If you say “a historian,” it requires a weird glottal stop between the words, with a sort of gasp. “An historian” comes out a lot smoother.
Btw, when it comes to “have your cake,” all I can say is, I’m still waiting for the proper sequel to “American Pie,” to be called “American Cake,” subtitled, “Portnoy’s Liver.”
Eh, more accurate this way; there was barely a first think, and there will certainly be no second.
If a liberal arts major ever says that engineers aren’t good with language, send them to this thread.
1. It is “think.”
2. If I ever say it, I make an extra effort to pronounce the word’s terminal K. It’s really not that difficult, y’all know.
3. I almost never say it, generally preferring the ironic (for the same reasons as voiced previously upthread) “Think again.”
“1. It is “think.” ”
And it is equally THING because you are using think as a noun and think – like any other noun – is a thing
If you choose to think of think as NOT a noun then you are really sunk in the quicksand.
😉
I’m happy to stipulate that “think” can be a noun, in which case the “you have another thing coming” people have no legs to stand on.
Usage of “think” as a noun is incorrect. The correct word is either “thought” or the gerund “thinking”.
By “no legs to stand on”, I assume you mean they still have legs (unless their legs were perhaps lost in an IED explosion), but instead don’t have a supportable position, in which case they “have no wall hangers for their dry erase board.”
Yeah, I just made that up, but it will catch on, I swear.
I once told a thread full of people that “polemic” was pronounced “pole mic” and referred to a microphone on a microphone stand that comedians use when they launch into an epic rant. Then I told them that they’d never unsee my construction, and that it would plague them for the rest of their lives. 🙂
And here I thought that “pole mic” was someone half Polish, half Irish.
Sorry Rand but I disagree:
A “Thing” is a noun. It is a fine synonym for “Think” (when used a noun – which you are fully willing to stipulate).
Of course “thing” is a noun. But in the context of that aphorism, it’s a terrible, in fact meaningless substitute for the proper word, “think.”
Enh, both can be right. The beauty of English is the ability to create. We all tend to use some common phrases as shorthand but should be reaching beyond cliches.