Answer: Another thing/think coming?

[randi2204]

carodee asks “Which option in this sentence is correct: ‘if you think ___, you’ve got another thing/think coming.’?”

An interesting question! 

The first time I encountered the disparity in this saying—in a story by an author whose work I enjoyed reading—I was surprised, but counted it as just a typo.  Anyone would, right?  I know I sometimes mistype one for the other.   But as I got further into the wide world of fandom and fanfic, I encountered this same “typo” often; too often, really, to consider it just a typo anymore.

The phrase appears to have originated in America, but the same controversy—think or thing—rages (for a dusty and somewhat pedantic definition of “rage”) on both sides of the Pond.  Australia also uses this saying, so perhaps the saying is more likely to have been coined in England and traveled along when new lands were colonized. 

However it began, the earliest known recorded use of the saying was in the Washington Post, April 29, 1897:

Another “Think” Coming to Them. From the Manchester Union:  Methodist conference members throughout the country think that woman is all right in her place, but they are not of the opinion that that place is in the deliberative convention of the churches.

Another source of roughly the same era is the Chicago Daily Tribune, September 24, 1898:

Chicago thinks it needs a new charter.  Chicago has got another think coming.  It doesn’t need a new charter half as much as it needs some honest officials.—Quinoy Whig.

Both of these sources use think, not thing.  In fact, the earliest use of thing in this saying isn’t until 1919, in the Syracuse Herald of August 12:

If you think the life of a movie star is all sunshine and flowers you’ve got another thing coming.

In addition, under the definition for thing, the OED states that to have another thing coming is a misapprehension of to have another think coming.

So to answer the question, the original phrase, based on sources currently available, is If you think X, you’ve got another think coming.  Yes, it’s ungrammatical, but in all likelihood, it originated as a play on words.  The problem arose because the use of think as a noun is fairly uncommon; most people are used to using it as a verb, which is why adherents of thing in the saying claim it makes more sense than think.   Try looking at it this way: the phrase itself is essentially telling you that you’ve made a mistake and you need to think again.  Which makes more sense—think again or thing again?  Think again makes more sense, because thing is not a verb.

Its use is uncommon enough that your characters might be confused by it:

“Slayer,” Spike growled, “if you think I’m about to let you stake Drusilla, you’ve got another think coming.”

“I’ve got a what?” Buffy asked, brow wrinkled in confusion.

At about 2:50 of this video from the program Bill Cosby: Himself, the incomparable Bill Cosby gives us another example.

Bill Cosby: I love it when they give you another think coming.  If you think that I was put on this earth to be your slave, you’ve got another think coming.

In the video, Cos clearly enunciates both “k” sounds—the one at the end of “think” and the one at the beginning of “coming.”  Not everyone does, however; when speaking, people tend to be lazy and not completely form the “k” sound at the end of “think.”  The result, surprisingly, ends up sounding like a “g” sound… like they were saying “thing coming” instead of “think coming.”

(For a much more complete discussion of the “k” and “g” sounds, take a look at this entry of Language Log.)

While another think coming is the original version of the phrase, usage of another thing coming far outweighs it, in part because of the way it sounds when spoken, as referenced above, and perhaps also in part because of the Judas Priest song Another Thing Coming.  If one were to search on Google and compare results for another think coming and another thing coming, one would discover that the results for another thing coming far outweigh those for another think coming.

Over time, the way we hear this saying has caused it to develop the think and thing variants.  Regardless of whether you use think or thing in your own writing, be prepared for people to disagree.

Sources:
The Phrase Finder
Grammarist
Language Log entries here, here and here
Dictionary.com - Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

Comments

[unfeathered]

Huh. It never ever occurred to me that it might be 'thing'. I mean, 'think' makes sense so that's what it is, right?

But then, it never occurred to me that people could mishear 'then' for 'than' either, until I got into fandom... *g*

[china_shop]

Thank you for this. I always assumed "think" was a typo. I shall stop judging henceforth. ;-)

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

The whole thing makes me crazy, so this will be short and sweet. People are putting into writing what they heard/thought they heard. Another "thing" makes absolutely no sense at all. "If you think that, you've got another "thing" coming. What's the "thing," for goodness' sake? It comes from slurring together the two words rather than making the tiny pause/break to make the words distinct. By slurring them together, the "k" at the end of "think" is combined with the "c" at the start of "coming" into one sound -- the same sound. If you "think" something and you're incorrect, what would you logically have coming? Duh! Another "think," so you could get it right the next time! After a while, it becomes colloquial, and we all have a choice to say what we want in the way we want. However in origin, it's a mistake of careless enunciation and mishearing being translated into a ever more common mistake in writing.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

We're opposites! To me, "another think coming" makes zero sense, it sounds like bad English. "Another thought coming" would sound better.

What's the "thing," for goodness' sake?

It's not [the first thing in the sentence]. Example:

"If you think I'm going to buy that, you have another thing coming!"

In that case, the thing would be 'not buying that'.

"Another think coming" sounds so jarring and wrong to my ear. :/

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

It is bad, or at least, very casual English, and I don't speak that way. I would say, "If you actually think that, you had better think again/rethink the situation." But clumsy though it may be, it makes sense in the context of what is being said. What it means is if you think that (whatever that is) you're wrong, so to figure out your mistake, you should think again (You have another "think"/thinking about it coming necessary to see it correctly. A stupid construction, I grant you, but I repeat: what's the "thing"? It's hardly the way one would want to speak, but of the two, it makes more internal sense. It does to me, anyway.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Agreed, I'd rather phrase it as you did.

[bsg-aussiegirl.livejournal.com]

LOL! I disagree completely with the think! Yes, I'm Australian and yes, we say this all the time, but I've never said 'think' and have never heard anyone say 'think'. (I shall listen more carefully from now on though!) I don't think it makes sense to say 'think' even after reading this! I mean, I understand it, but it still seems completely incorrect. To me, the thing coming is just that! A thing! Something, anything, nothing! But a thing! How can a 'think' even come to a person?

[novakev.livejournal.com]

Completely agree with everything you have stated! I'm Canadian and have never heard it as "another think coming". The 'thing' coming might be a change in thought but it still sounds odd to use think as a noun.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I was so used to 'thing' I was honestly surprised to find that 'think' definitely came first.

[quillaninc]

I'm curious, here - what part of Aus are you in, BSG? I've only ever heard it as 'think', all from SA, VIC, and SW NSW. Could that be regional, too, possibly?

[bsg-aussiegirl.livejournal.com]

Qld! That could explain a lot, I guess, because no, we never run our words together...

[mendax.livejournal.com]

I was astonished to learn it was "another think." And yes, I totally blame Judas Priest. (I loved that song. I am old.)

[samjohnsson.livejournal.com]

For what it's work, Google's Books Corpus has both, even before the dates listed, in the ngram viewer (http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=another+thing+coming%2C+another+think+coming&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=0&share=), though it doesn't cite sources. The specific corpora have "thing" even earlier, in fact. (Google ngrams, possibly my favorite tool to start looking at this stuff.)

[carodee.livejournal.com]

This was a wonderful explanation of the drift from 'think' to 'thing'. Thank you! This is one of my biggest peeves and I always thought it was people who didn't know the saying simply copying it from someone's misspelling and perpetuating it. The pronunciation explanation makes sense and that it's shifting throughout the language makes me wince slightly less now. Slightly. *g*

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I always grew up with what I thought was 'thing' -- honestly not sure now -- and I always understood it to mean 'if you think [one thing], you have another thing coming' - something that would make you reconsider.

[randi2204]

Thank you! I'm so pleased you liked the article. I've seen it used opposite of the way I was used to, and it always threw me for a loop, too, so I was pleased to tackle this topic.

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That's one of those things that I've always wondered about, but never been quite moved enough to find out about *g* I'm English, and grew up with the 'think' variation, and didn't hear or see it written as 'thing' until maybe ten years ago. Great explanation, ta muchly.

[campylobacter.livejournal.com]

Both phrases sound like good titles for pornos.

[lady-lirenel.livejournal.com]

Honestly, though, I think 'thing' could work just as well as 'think', because the Old English 'thing' is one of those catch-all words, and can mean just about any noun in the known universe - it's the undefinable. So the phrase could well be rephrased as: If you think ___, you have something else coming to you.

Or, to play on the example given: “Slayer,” Spike growled, “if you think I’m about to let you stake Drusilla, you’ve got something else coming to you.”, i.e. you will be stopped by whatever sharp object I have on hand.