"You Got Some Explaining to Do"

[Tdol]

We are not speak English good.

What need when our bases is belong to you?

[Rover_KE]

Google has about 212,000 results for the phrase "some explanation to do" ... (search with the quotation marks to restrict the results to the phrase).

You get better answers here than you get from Google.

[SoothingDave]

Desi Arnaz would exclaim, in his Cuban accent, "Luuuucy! You got some esplainin' to do!" on the I Love Lucy show from the 1950s. I imagine this wording is meant to evoke that.

[Phaedrus]

What is the difference between "You Got Some Explaining to Do" and "You Got Some Explanation to Do"?

I think the second formulation would be possible if, in addition to changing "You got" to "You've got," we changed "do" to "make."

(Native speakers don't speak of doing explanations; we speak of making explanations.)

You've got some explanation to make.

I'm not claiming that the above is normal or usual or even particularly natural; I'm only claiming that it's possible.

In "make some explanation," "some" functions like the indefinite article (a/an). In "do some explaining," by contrast, "some" is a quantifier.

Why are you typing another post? Oh, let me guess. You've got some explanation to make.

[emsr2d2]

In my experience, we "give/provide" an explanation. We neither "do" nor "make" one.

[Phaedrus]

In my experience, we "give/provide" an explanation. We neither "do" nor "make" one.

In my experience, "give an explanation," "provide an explanation," and "make an explanation" all work.

To me, "You've got an/some explanation to make" sounds better than "You've got an/some explanation to give/provide."

However, I should be happy to make either of your substitutions in my post above.

[GoesStation]

"Make an explanation" sounds weird to me. Learners should not use it.

[Phaedrus]

"Make an explanation" sounds weird to me. Learners should not use it.

Thus, you would advise learners that all the following examples from the Corpus of Contemporary American English are improper:

• "I remembered that I had been sent to make explanations so as to obtain Broome's release."
• "Rif hated to make explanations. "
• "She did not like to make explanations at parties."
• "Third, more research related to levels of generalization understanding, such as ability to state the generalization, to use the generalization to make explanations, and to use the generalization to make predictions, is needed."
• "Those who ultimately lose would make explanations based on this causal schema Explanations would be the same for winners and for losers at half-time, and would also be the same for winners or losers at the end of the game."

In any case, my main point in Post #14 was not that "make" collocates awesomely with "explanation"; it was that by changing "do" to a verb that is idiomatically followed by the noun "explanation," the second construction found in the OP becomes grammatically possible and, in certain special contexts, even usable, with its own very distinct meaning. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[jutfrank]

Desi Arnaz would exclaim, in his Cuban accent, "Luuuucy! You got some esplainin' to do!" on the I Love Lucy show from the 1950s. I imagine this wording is meant to evoke that.

Yes. Although I doubt the use here was meant to evoke Desi Arnaz in particular, I do think that You('ve) got some explaining to do is best treated as a fixed expression. It doesn't work with explanation, of course.

[Charlie Bernstein]

What is the difference between "You have got some explaining to do" and "You have got some explanation to do"?

The difference is that one is right and one is wrong.

In the US, we would usually say, "You have some explaining to do" or "You've got some explaining to do."

In your example, however, the nonstandard grammar is intentionally colloquial, so it's fine.

(And capitals are correct in a title. I corrected it as a sentence, not a title.)
Since the gerund is present continuing, I guess the former means "The explanation is on the way,"

No. We don't know whether it's on its way. Maybe an explanation is coming, and maybe it isn't.

while the latter is not restricted by the time.

It has nothing to do with time. The latter is simply wrong. Explanation is a noun, which wouldn't fit. You could say, "You owe us an explanation."

I am not sure.

Now you know!