ค่อยพบกัน

[KunMatt]

Can someone translate "ค่อยพบกัน" into English for me please?

[keo]

Could be คอยพบกัน - waiting to meet you.

This suggests otherwise...

http://www.gotoknow.org/blog/shajajakk/381777

"แล้วเราค่อยพบกันอีกนะ"

Not sure!

Anyone?

[KunMatt]

I know พบกัน is "to meet" but what the word ค่อย before it means to the sentence I don't know.

Maybe it is a spelling mistake and คอยพบกัน was intended meaning "waiting to meet you".

I hope this is the case as it is a lot less sinister than what I originally thought was meant of "wanting to set up a secret meeting"...

If anyone knows I would greatly appreciate any input.

[eric67]

I think in this case ค่อย has the same meaning as แล้ว : then, later

[KunMatt]

I think in this case ค่อย has the same meaning as แล้ว : then, later

I don't think so because it wasn't the end of a sentence, the message I got was just "ค่อยพบกันนะค่ะ"

Unless anyone can tell me different I will assume it was a spelling mistake and should have been คอยพบกันนะค่ะ. Given the sender this would make more sense than the indecent proposal I assumed was implied by the mispelling!

It kinda makes me feel better when I see Thai's making so many mistakes with their tones rules and whatever, at least I'm not the only one doing it!

[mikenyork]

I will defer to the native speakers on this site, but to me it means "Let's wait a bit before we meet".

[rgs2001uk]

I will defer to the native speakers on this site, but to me it means "Let's wait a bit before we meet".

Well not a native speaker, however I agree.

We dont know the context or the rest of the conversation which makes it difficult to give an explanation as to the exact meaning or intent.

Something along the lines of lets go slowly before meeting.

[keo]

According to my gf, it means "let's meet another time", or just "another time".

[meadish_sweetball]

khôi is a bit difficult to pin down, the phrase 'khôi khôi' is used as an imperative that could be translated as 'slowly' or 'carefully' and you will hear it said to address somebody who you think is doing something in an agitated or excessively fast/violent manner; but this usage doesn't apply to the sentence the OP asked about, I am just adding it for completeness. ค่อยพบกันนะ is a common expression. You sometimes see 'laew' in front, too, 'laew khoi pop kan', or just 'laew pop kan' without the 'khoi'. 'khôi' does not add much to the phrase, except perhaps that the speaker is adding a dimension of uncertainty as to when you will see each other, but that it will 'happen when it happens' and all is good (the speaker does not imply not caring about when it is, i.e. it isn't quite like 'see you whenever i see you').

[soundman]

It kinda makes me feel better when I see Thai's making so many mistakes with their tones rules and whatever, at least I'm not the only one doing it!

You just have to look at Facebook, SMS and BB to see some absolutely atrocious spelling by Thai's on the fly.

[KunMatt]

OK, so I asked the girl to clarify her message and she said "I'm glad to meet you". That doesn't really help me out with either of the translations I was expecting because I've known her for over a year and we are not just meeting, so I think she is just being friendly and she means she is welcoming me back to Thailand when I come back soon.

Also, bearing in mind her English is worse than my Thai so I doubt it is a very accurate translation to convey what she meant but at least now I don't think she meant anything indecent!

[meadish_sweetball]

I asked the girl to clarify her message and she said "I'm glad to meet you".

She explained the underlying feeling she had, not the meaning of the words she wrote, which is fair enough. But I don't think you should rely on her to answer any language-related questions. And you are right, there is definitely nothing indecent implied in ค่อยพบกัน. Perhaps a decent comparison in English would be the use of 'then' in 'I'll see you later, then.' - it adds similarly little to the core of the statement, except, possibly, signalling an attempt to conclude the conversation.

[KunMatt]

OK, so after establishing that ค่อยพบกัน was not an indecent proposal I decided I could ask my girlfriend what her friend meant by her message to me!!

ค่อยพบกัน is a common expression and it basically means "See you soon". Phew!! lol

Turns out that คอยพบกัน is not real Thai and doesn't make sense.

Thanks to all. It's been interesting.

[kriswillems]

ค่อย makes the sentence look more soft. It carries two feelings: a feeling of not needing to hurry and a feeling of natural continuation.

ค่อย + verb or the more often used ค่อยๆ + verb

f.i. ค่อยๆทำงาน or ค่อยๆดู

Means that you can/should continue to the action described by "verb" in a relaxed way.

Edited July 6, 2011 by kriswillems

[Mole]

Well, I'm a native Thai speaker, and to me it just means "let's meet again some other time" or "let's meet later".

ค่อย in this context would mean later as in ค่อยว่ากัน or ค่อยตกลงกัน meaning "let's agree later" or "let's conclude later"

It does not specifically imply "another time" as in "we should meet another time", but means just casually "we should meet later".

In longdo dictionary, the meaning is also (written in Thai only):

ค่อย ๓ [ว. คํานําหน้าความข้างท้ายให้ติดต่อกับความข้างหน้า แสดงกิริยาที่ กระทําภายหลัง]

Which basically means a word which specifies an action to be done later (some other time).

Plesae do not confuse or connect this with ค่อยๆ which means softly, quietly, carefully etc.

I notice that many of you do this mistake often when analyzing Thai is that you tend to try to translate by isolating each word by word. Unfortunately Thai language doesn't work this way and often words which may be said together but when split will have totally different meaning.

For example, เข้าใจ means understand, but if you split it into เข้า and ใจ it would mean "go in" and "heart" repectively. So in order to know what เข้าใจ actually means, you must only tranlslate it's full context and not word by word.

I think this is one of the charms of the Thai language because many words, you kind of get the metaphors of things and also the Thai mindset of what they perceive of things.

It also adds more difficulty for foreigners who are used to that words are split while in Thai a sentence is written together with no spaces in between words, so you can not be sure of the meaning of things unless you read the full sentence.

Edited July 7, 2011 by Mole

[tgeezer]

Well, I'm a native Thai speaker, and to me it just means "let's meet again some other time" or "let's meet later".

ค่อย in this context would mean later as in ค่อยว่ากัน or ค่อยตกลงกัน meaning "let's agree later" or "let's conclude later"

It does not specifically imply "another time" as in "we should meet another time", but means just casually "we should meet later".

In longdo dictionary, the meaning is also (written in Thai only):

ค่อย ๓ [ว. คํานําหน้าความข้างท้ายให้ติดต่อกับความข้างหน้า แสดงกิริยาที่ กระทําภายหลัง]

Which basically means a word which specifies an action to be done later (some other time).

Plesae do not confuse or connect this with ค่อยๆ which means softly, quietly, carefully etc.

I notice that many of you do this mistake often when analyzing Thai is that you tend to try to translate by isolating each word by word. Unfortunately Thai language doesn't work this way and often words which may be said together but when split will have totally different meaning.

For example, เข้าใจ means understand, but if you split it into เข้า and ใจ it would mean "go in" and "heart" repectively. So in order to know what เข้าใจ actually means, you must only tranlslate it's full context and not word by word.

I imagine ' เข้าใจ as 'enter the mind' sometimes it makes sense เรื่องนี้เข้าใจไหม I don't have to think that คุณ has been left out;( คุณเข่าใจไหม) just 'has the story entered your mind? Naturally that take is not the preferred one, the verb is applied to the owner of the mind คูณเข้าใจหรือ so เข้าใจ can not be taken literally and has to be a complete word which needs defining; รุ็เรื่อง รู้ความหมาย .

Similarly เจ้าของ can't be taken literally and needs defining, otherwise เจ้าของบ้าน would mean the house was responsible for the owner.

Edited July 7, 2011 by tgeezer

[Mole]

Hehe, I was actually thinking something similar.

The Thai word meaning understand literally means "enter the heart" and not mind.

This may explain the strangeness of Thais since they may understand things with their feelings rather than with their mind.

[tgeezer]

Hehe, I was actually thinking something similar.

The Thai word meaning understand literally means "enter the heart" and not mind.

This may explain the strangeness of Thais since they may understand things with their feelings rather than with their mind.

That is a characteristic which I think foreigners admire most about Thais whom they befriend; I should have written heart.

[tgeezer]

deleted double post.

Edited July 8, 2011 by tgeezer

[bifftastic]

Hehe, I was actually thinking something similar.

The Thai word meaning understand literally means "enter the heart" and not mind.

This may explain the strangeness of Thais since they may understand things with their feelings rather than with their mind.

interesting stuff

It made me wonder about English words too, I suppose the same can be said about 'understand' it's not a strict combination of 'under' and 'stand' ie. standing under something!

this link describes it more as 'standing amongst something' or in the midst of it, thereby becoming familiar with it.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=understand

As in Thai, words do not have the meaning often described by their individual components.

Thanks for the mental stimulation! My first of the day

[Mole]

What a brilliant comparison!

I was actually trying to find an equivalent example for words in English and turns out it was staring me right in the face!!

[nalaknarak]

To me ค่อย before verbs means "next time" e.g. ค่อยเจอกัน ค่อยพูดกัน เดี๋ยวค่อยไป etc.