Another think coming

[cimorene]

Listen, people.

It's not "If you think ___, you've got another thing coming". It's "If you think __, you've got another think coming." Get it? See how that works? The word "think" appears in both places! As if to suggest that the approaching think is going to replace the previous think which was in error! See how it even (gasp!) makes sense that way, whereas a "thing" coming in that context is so meaningless as to be completely baffling? [*]

Comments

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I just have to try to watch a movie with a bunch of Scottish actors to be reminded about that particular culture barrier. :/ I need subtitles sometimes. Sometimes just reading fanfiction for a British show is enough and I end up googling all sorts of things. (It would be faster with Australia, I think, but you don't get a lot of exposure in mainstream media fandom to historical Australian settings. But isilya wrote this one droving AU for SGA and someone posted a review of it that was like, "I think the author needed to get an American beta though, because we don't have a Prime Minister!")

There was this whole post in the Life on Mars comm a couple of weeks ago because a whole bunch of Americans couldn't at all understand the final exchange, which had something to do with chunky Kit-Kat bars. But that Manchester accent was just too dense for them to penetrate! (For once, I actually understood it.)

I see what you're saying, though - that the "thing" that's coming could be a birch branch or a belt or a day scrubbing the bathroom? I can see that. I still don't think it makes sense, though, because it implies the punishment is just for thinking whatever and not contingent on doing anything.