"โต๋เต๋ๆ"

[DavidHouston]

Friends,

The sample sentence below comes from Lexitron within the definition of "โต๋เต๋ [ADV] aimlessly; without proposes":

เขาเดินโต๋เต๋ๆ โดยไม่มีจุดหมายปลายทาง

Which do you think best reflects the phrase "จุดหมายปลายทาง"? Is the term meant to be concrete in this context or metaphorical?

1. He walks about aimlessly, without an end in mind.

2. He walks about aimlessly, without knowing where he will endup.

3. He walks about aimlessly, without a purpose or goal.

Perhaps "wanders" can be used in place of "walks". What do you think?

[Rikker]

จุดหมายปลายทาง = destination. Literal or figurative.

[GarryP]

It definitely means destination. However, to me destination seems a bit formal for the sample sentence.

How about "He's wandering about aimlessly, going nowhere in particular"

[SoftWater]

I think 1, 2 & 3 are all OK, and GarryP's 4. Depending on the context (and for some reason this expression makes me think of Simon & Garfunkel tunes... )

I would personally render as

5. He walks around with nowhere in mind.

But I'm not sure there is much to split them. I'm also reminded of a Thai lyric I posted about some time ago that starts with

โดดเดียวเดียวดายในท้องเล ลมพัดลมเพไร้จุดหมาย...

[bannork]

Perhaps we could use 'mooching around' in some instances, a Thai said to me a good example of เดินโต๋เต๋ would be students hanging around outside a classroom, not wanting to go into the lesson,wandering round aimlessly.

[SoftWater]

Perhaps we could use 'mooching around' in some instances, a Thai said to me a good example of เดินโต๋เต๋ would be students hanging around outside a classroom, not wanting to go into the lesson,wandering round aimlessly.

Fantastic! Can't wait to try this out the next time a tuk-tuk driver calls out ไปไหน

- เดินโต๋เต๋เลย