Friday, January 20, 2017

"You've Got Another Think Coming"...Or "Idioms That People Mis-say"

  At the lunch table the other day, my family (through various paths and roads) began discussing idioms that people mis-say (yes 'mis-say' isn't a real word).  There are only going to be two examples in this post, but there are others.

  Exhibit A: "You've/They've got another think coming".  Most people say, "You've/They've got another thing coming".  But that's not the way the saying goes!  Google it.  And think about it.  When you use that idiom, you are speaking to/of someone who thought wrong....so they've got another think coming!

  Exhibit B: "I don't give a Tinker's dam".  Now, most people know this idiom with a cuss word, courtesy of Margaret Mitchell. 

  "Tinker's-dam - a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder. The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless".

  Hence the saying, "I don't give a Tinker's dam."  Whatever the person is trying to tell you or show you or whatever it is, is absolutely worthless. 

  Thanks for joining me guys!  Do you know any idioms that people do not say correctly?

P.S. I offer my humblest apologies if I offend anyone with this post.

6 comments:

  1. My teacher's mother is from Spain and has a really heavy accent. One day my teacher asked her how she was feeling, and rather than saying "I have my ups and downs" as she meant to, she said "I have my upside downs." It was pretty funny. Another one she said was "You and me? We're like two pieces of pie," rather than "Two peas in a pod." Speaking of "mis-sayings" I recently discovered that the phrase is not "for all intensive purposes" but rather "for all intents and purposes". As someone who values grammar and syntax a lot, I was shocked and deeply disturbed to see I have been saying it wrong all the time. Oh the humanity! *languishes*

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    1. Two pieces of pie! That is funny!

      Ah! I don't use that one very often, but I think I've always said "intents and purposes".

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  2. I'm not sure if it counts as an idiom, but one I hear often is 'I could care less' instead of 'I couldn't care less'. Leaving that little 'n't' off the end changes the whole sentence. ;)

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    1. It so does! But sitting here thinking about it, they both make sense!

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  3. I love things like this ☺ always so fun

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