If you look up "How often..?" in a phrase book, I think you are usually given the phrase "ฺฺฺฺฺฺฺฺฺฺฺ......บ่อยแค่ไหน?" I don't recall ever hearing this phrase spoken by a Thai though my memory may be at fault. I have certainly used it and been understood. The phrase I hear far more often is ".....เดือนละกี่ครั้ง?" Of course, เดือน can be replaced by วัน etc.

This morning I entered a 7-11 that I don't usually use and the two cocky lads behind the counter subjected me to a comprehensive interrogation. The normal questions were posed to which I gave my usual random mix of half-truths and falsifications as answers. One of the questions was "นานๆมาที?ี" which I didn't understand. He paraphrased as the standard "มาเดือนละกี่ครั้ง?" So are these two questions the same?

Thanks for your help.

นาน ๆ มาที isn't a question, it's more of an answer. "(I) come every once in a while." ที = ครั้ง = (one) time; once

You can use it with any verb, นาน ๆ X ที. If I'm known for avoiding sweets but a friend sees me purchase a candy bar, I might say นาน ๆ กินที, roughly, "(it's okay to) eat one every once in a while." Or if you were asked, "Do you watch TV?" you might reply นาน ๆ ดูที (not much).

นาน ๆ ที without the verb also works as a generic reply "once in a while," or "every now and again."

Thank you for your comprehensive reply, Rikker.

He, the less cocky of the two, was putting what I had said already in a different way. "So you come here (happened to be Surawong Road) every now and then." This fits the context perfectly.

In order to try to cement this phrase in my mind I shall now have to try to introduce this structure subtly into conversation and take note of the responses to ensure I am employing this correctly. That's my hit-and-miss technique.

ํำYep. Just curious though.. how were they "cocky"? I mean, how do 7-11 staff get cocky with customers?

I'm not sure why you are confused because if I understand correctly you are a native English speaker with almost native Thai.

I described them as 'cocky', i.e. overly confident in a slightly negative or impolite way because of the manner in which the pair fired questions at me as I purchased my goods. "Where are you from? What's your job? Where do you work? Why are you here on this street? When are you going back to England?" All of this was done in an unabashed manner without revealing any info about themselves. I was not impolite to them even though I felt their behaviour was crass. I thus described them as cocky.

Thanks. My experience of the word was more along the lines of "overconfident" as in a "conceited" way, or in a situation in which someone has an ability or trait to be proud of, making them stuck-up. So I was wondering what the 7-11 boys had to be haughty about.

But I grew up with American English, so maybe there's a difference in usage or something (or maybe it's just me ).

You are right. It's British usage.