You have another think coming

[lmitchell]

I grew up and have lived my entire life in the deep South. For most of us Southerners, eggcorns are a dime a dozen. It's enough to make you curl up in the feeble position. Sure, some of you think I don't know buttkiss or I'm telling a bold-faced lie, but it is true. I dunno, perhaps my little rant is all for not. A mute point. I just know eggcorns sound like music to my ears when they are spoken in my native Southern draw.

My favorite? Chester drawers instead of chest of drawers.

What? I'm done. No, really. You are waiting with baited breath, aren't you? Stop reading. It is over.

[ryanznock]

Chester drawers is wrong? That's the first in the thread I didn't realize. I blame my mom, who warshes dishes, and drinks melk with her cookies. (Not eggcorns, sadly.)

[J. T. SHEA]

Gladly the cross-eyed bear?

[D. G. Hudson]

Yes, I heard this one as well. (It usually followed when I gave my teen opinion on some subject or idea which didn't sit well with my mom.) It's probably one of those sayings which made more sense to the generation that originated it. (i.e., if that's what you think, then you are going to another 'think' or surprise coming. . .)

It's another saying that seems odd, like when I was told to 'watch my mouth' (usually when restricted words were uttered). I used to wonder how I should watch my mouth - in the mirror?

[k10wnsta]

I'm astonished so many people are under the impression that 'thing' is correct. Is it just a situation where they've gone their entire lives without hearing the whole phrase ('If you think that, you got another think comin')? I hope that's the case, cuz if you plug 'thing' in there, it makes very little sense ('If you think that, you got another thing comin' - lolwut?).

However, I can see how the misunderstanding could crop up if you rarely heard (or read) the phrase and when you did it was never in its entirety. I've been trying to think of common phrases whose words I misappropriated for years - and there are definitely a couple - but I can't for the life of me remember any at the moment (I may come back and append this post when I dredge one up).

Nathan, you definitely should NOT remove the phrase...just correct it. You have the opportunity to educate scores of impressionable young minds and prevent them from going years without being aware of the phrase's proper use (and you could even use the WHOLE phrase if it fits into the context of where you had the erroneous one). Seriously, don't make all those kids go 20-30 years before being shocked by the revelation that they were misusing a phrase their entire lives (as so many others have obviously done). If you failed to jump at the opportunity to educate the very demographic that would benefit most from such a clarification, that would just be a tragedy.

[otherside89girl]

Until recently, I thought I wasn't supposed to "lick a gift horse in the mouth".

I thought that was a very strange thing to say, but my dad said it all the time so it must be right. "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" makes a lot more sense.

Oh, and I once wrote "for all intensive purposes" in an essay. Oops.