อยากออกกำลังกายอยู่พอดี

[kokesaat]

In last week's Bangkok Post Learning Section, พูดภาษาไทย, Frank says to Chai, "Chai, let's go play basketball." Chai replies,

ไปสิ อยากออกกำลังกายอยู่พอดี

The post translates Chai's reply as, Good idea! I was just thinking of getting some exercise. My Thai teacher says the อยู่พอดี roughly translates to "I was just thinking the same thing". Can anyone offer some other examples of how อยู่พอดี is used in a sentence? I can usually dissect these sentences and figure out the flow, but am having difficulty with this one.

Thanks from Udon

[DavidHouston]

In last week's Bangkok Post Learning Section, พูดภาษาไทย, Frank says to Chai, "Chai, let's go play basketball." Chai replies,

ไปสิ อยากออกกำลังกายอยู่พอดี

The post translates Chai's reply as, Good idea! I was just thinking of getting some exercise. My Thai teacher says the อยู่พอดี roughly translates to "I was just thinking the same thing". Can anyone offer some other examples of how อยู่พอดี is used in a sentence? I can usually dissect these sentences and figure out the flow, but am having difficulty with this one.

Thanks from Udon

I believe that there is one word missing in your formulation, "อยาก", to want. The phrase expressing coincidental thinking is "อยาก . . . อยู่พอดี". Here is a comparable sentence in the Thai Concordance: "กำลังคิดว่าจะกลับบ้านอยู่พอดี" where the operative words are "กำลังคิดว่า . . . อยู่พอดี". In this case the expression of desire is "คิด", rather than "อยาก".