On 2014-05-28 13:05, Craig Dillabaugh via Digitalmars-d-announce wrote:
On Tuesday, 27 May 2014 at 21:40:00 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
On 5/27/2014 2:22 PM, w0rp wrote:
I'm actually a native speaker of 25 years and I didn't get it at
first. Natural
language communicates ideas approximately.
What bugs me is when people say:
I could care less.
when they mean:
I couldn't care less.
and:
If you think that, you have another thing coming.
when they mean:
If you think that, you have another think coming.
Whats wrong with "If you think that, you have another thing coming."?
I've always understood it sort of like say your Father saying:
"If you think that [i.e. you can steal your little brother's ice cream
cone], then you have another thing [i.e no ice cream, but maybe the
leather strap] coming."
It's an old saying, and in more modern English might be phrased "If you
think that, you have another thought coming", i.e. you'll soon enough
see why you're wrong.
--
Simen
