# Thank you for meeting up with me



## mundosnuevos

Hello everyone,

I am having trouble with this sentence: "thank you for meeting up with me" or "thank you for getting together with me" in the sense of getting together with a friend for coffee, for a language-exchange or to discuss something in particular.  My intent: "Danke für mich zu treffen" but I really feel that this isn't right or colloquial.  Could someone give me some options?  Thank you.


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## perpend

Hmmm ... there are several ways to say it, but yours isn't quite right. 

I guess it would depend on the level of the friendship, but here's what I might say as a non-native:

Danke, dass du mich getroffen hast.

Depending on the nature of the "meeting", maybe: Danke (dir) für die/unsere Verabredung.


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## bearded

Another possibility:  _Danke, dass du mich treffen wolltest  _(lit. thank you for wanting to meet me, or for being ready/willing to meet me).


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## derspot

"Danke, dass du mich getroffen hast. " -> This sentence would mean that the meeting is over already. So it is in the past.  

I would just say "Danke für die Einladung." which means something like "Thanks for the invitation." or "Schön, dass du die Zeit findest mich zu treffen." which means that it's nice that the other person finds the time to meet you. 

"Vielen Dank, dass Sie mich empfangen. " would be very polite and you probably wouldn't use it among friends. But you can use it at the doctor or if you meet your boss at work.


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## bearded

In the phrase ''thank you for meeting up with me'' I do feel a reference to the past.  Should the meeting have not yet taken place, then I would rather expect ''thank you for accepting to meet (up with) me''.  Please consider that the reference to the past is perpend's first reading - see above - and he is an English native speaker.  I think that his 'Danke, dass du mich getroffen hast' is quite correct.
Also when I suggested ''..dass du mich treffen wolltest'' I was thinking of the past (the meeting already occurred).


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## derspot

You are right. If it is in the past the sentence is correct.


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## wandle

'Meet up with' suggests to me an unplanned, or not specifically planned, meeting. 
Thus, 'Stanley spent weeks tracking Livingstone across East Africa before finally meeting up with him at Ujiji'.


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## derspot

I thought about it again.

Even if it is supposed to be in the past the sentence "Danke das du mich getroffen hast" does not sound very idiomatic to me.
I think a german wouldn't say something like this. But grammatically it is correct. 

Actually you wouldn't thank your friends for meeting up with you because it is quite normal to meet your friends.

That's why I would suggest you use the phrase: "Danke für die Einladung!"

It is quite common to say that and you can use it for the past, present or future. 

It doesn't make any difference.


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## Schlabberlatz

"Danke, dass du dich mit mir getroffen hast" might work. "Danke für die Einladung!", as suggested by derspot, is a good option.

Edit: "Danke, dass du dich mit mir triffst" would be better in case the meeting is not over yet.


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## ABBA Stanza

wandle said:


> 'Meet up with' suggests to me an unplanned, or not specifically planned, meeting.


I'm not so sure, since we do say things like "I'm meeting up with John on Thursday", referring to a planned, future event.

Best regards,
Abba


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## rev98

I would just say
"Schön, dass wir uns treffen." or "Schön, dass wir uns getroffen haben."
"Ich freue mich, dass das mit unserem Treffen geklappt hat."
or anything like that.

If I met someone and they said "Thank you for meeting up with me" it sounds a little like they didn't really expect me to do that or they think that I actually didn't want to come. For example you were fighting with someone and later they ask you to come by, because they want to talk about what happened. Then you agree, although you're still mad at them. In this case it would be normal if they said something like that.


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## wandle

ABBA Stanza said:


> I'm not so sure, since we do say things like "I'm meeting up with John on Thursday", referring to a planned, future event.
> Best regards,
> Abba


In this example, the facts of the case mean it is logically inescapable that the future meeting is a planned one. 
That meaning does not arise from saying 'meeting up with' rather than simply 'meeting' (which I would prefer).

In other words, this example is one where the distinction of meaning between two expressions is overridden by the strong implication of the facts.
That does not mean that the distinction does not exist, just that in this context it is outweighed by a stronger factor.


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## djweaverbeaver

I'm not quite sure what *wandle *was getting at with his explanation, but I can think of many situations in which I'd use "*to meet up with sb*" for a planned event.   Even in the example given, the plan was to track Livingston down with the hope of one day seeing him in person, so one could say it was planned, even if the actual day and time were unknown.   If anything,  I wouldn't really use it for a chance encounter with someone on the street.  In that case, I'd probably say "to bump into sb".   Maybe this is another one of the AmE/BrE differences.

As has already become apparent,  "Thank you for meeting up with me" in English is ambiguous because it can refer to either a past or future event.  I think that this form is more common colloquially for the past than "Thank you for having met up with me." It sounds more warmer and less stilted.  It's like when you leave a show or a movie and they say to you  "Thanks for coming"  or at the end of a radio broadcast they say "Thanks for listening, when what they actually mean is "Thanks for having come" and "Thanks for having listened", respectively, but almost nobody use the latter form.

I personally don't fully like *Danke für die Einladung* because it implies that the person being thanked did the inviting when in actually they could've met up at the request of the thanker.  In fact, the English usually would imply that the "thanker" asked the "thankee" to meet up somewhere, and the "thankee" consented and showed up at the agreed-upon time and location.   Put another way,  what would the thanker thank the thankee  for the meeting if the thanker had not requested it to begin with?  For this reason, I say we chuck out anything with Einladung/invitation overtones.


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## stormwatch

How I would thank someone for agreeing to meet with me (although it sounds like he's making you a favor): „_Danke dass du einverstanden warst, uns zu treffen_”, although, if he is a friend, it sounds a bit awkward. More probably, I would say: „_Danke dass du kommen konntest_”.


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## Schimmelreiter

stormwatch said:


> _Danke dass du einverstanden warst, uns zu treffen_


means that one person _(du) _met a group of people _(uns). _Please insert a comma before _​dass.


_PS
Infinitive clauses share the subject of the main clause.

PPS
more idiomatically: _Danke, dass du einverstanden warst, dich mit uns/mir/meinem Bruder zu treffen.
_Unlike the reflexive use, the transitive use tends to mean an accidental encounter: 

_Ich habe ihn im Café getroffen.
_vs.
_Ich habe mich mit ihm im Café getroffen._


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## bearded

> Schimmelreiter:
> an accidental encounter: _ich habe ihn im Café getroffen_


And in this case is it fully equivalent to _begegnen (ich bin ihm im Café begegnet) _or is there yet another small difference in meaning?
(An already existing thread on this does not seem to have given a definitive answer, in my view).
Thank you in advance.


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## wandle

djweaverbeaver said:


> in the example given, the plan was to track Livingston down with the hope of one day seeing him in person, so one could say it was planned, even if the actual day and time were unknown.


Livingstone knew nothing about Stanley's intention. Stanley intended to meet him, but could not know where or when, or even whether he would do it. 
What I said was:


wandle said:


> 'Meet up with' suggests to me an unplanned, or not specifically planned, meeting.


The example of Stanley and Livingstone was deliberately chosen to illustrate the weaker case, a meeting that was not specifically planned, thus allowing the stronger case to be understood _a fortiori_.


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## Schimmelreiter

bearded man said:


> _ich bin ihm im Café begegnet_


Rather: *Er* _ist_ *mir *_im Café begegnet./*Wir* sind *uns *_(only in Austria, as I was informed in an earlier thread: *einander*) _im Café begegnet.

_PS
The first-person perspective tends to be for the starting point of relationships (amorous and otherwise):

_Ich bin ihr zum erstenmal im Café begegnet./Wir sind uns/einander zum erstenmal im Café begegnet._



PPS
I believe the original meaning of _begegnen _is _entgegenkommen._ When I'm walking along the street, I see the other person _mir entgegenkommen_: 

_Ich geh' über den Graben*, da begegnet mir der Franz. 

_*street in Vienna
colloquial: _article + name_


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## djweaverbeaver

wandle said:


> Livingstone knew nothing about Stanley's intention. Stanley intended to meet him, but could not know where or when, or even whether he would do it.



The fact that Stanley couldn't know where or when he would get to meet Livingstone has little bearing on whether or not to choose to use "to meet up with" in my opinion.  You re-quoted yourself as having said 



> 'Meet up with' suggests to me an unplanned, or not specifically planned, meeting.



but I tell that last night I agreed *to meet up with* some friends of mine in one the campus libraries this morning in 30 minutes so that we can study for our final exams coming up next week.  This, to me, is a specifically planned engagement, set time, set place.  I'm actually heading out the door right now so that I can secure a good study spot as soon as the doors open.

Once again,  maybe this is an American vs. British English difference.


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## mregine

I didn't quite get the Stanley and Livingston part, but with respect to the original post, if you are saying your goodbyes after requesting the meeting and want to thank the other person, it seems I might say: "Danke, dass Du Dir/Sie sich die Zeit genommen hast/haben". The notion of "meeting" is gone, but it sounds colloquial to me.


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## wandle

mregine said:


> I didn't quite get the Stanley and Livingston part


The meeting between Stanley and Livingstone was not specifically planned and thus illustrates one way the phrase 'meet up with' might be used.
Personally, I try to avoid the phrase, as it seems unnecessarily wordy.


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## Schlabberlatz

djweaverbeaver said:


> I personally don't fully like *Danke für die Einladung*  because it implies that the person being thanked did the inviting when  in actually they could've met up at the request of the thanker.


You’re right. I hadn’t thought of that. Of course you could only say "Danke für die Einladung" if you had asked for a meeting and the person you had asked then invited you to his/her place.


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## mregine

Schimmelreiter said:


> The _per Du _version wants improvement.   The reflexive pronoun has to be in the dative. Plus, please capitalise either both the personal and reflexive pronouns or neither one:  _... dass Du Dir die Zeit genommen hast._ _... dass du dir die Zeit genommen hast.  _PS I'm not sure whether it's obligatory to capitalise _Dir _if _Du _​is capitalised but I find it illogical not to.


  Ach, Kasus, Großschreibung, alles nur Details ;-) This French-native here will never get them right, even after "zig" years in Germany.

   Thanks for the comment - I corrected my first post.


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## mundosnuevos

rev98 said:


> I would just say
> "Schön, dass wir uns treffen." or "Schön, dass wir uns getroffen haben."
> "Ich freue mich, dass das mit unserem Treffen geklappt hat."
> or anything like that.
> 
> If I met someone and they said "Thank you for meeting up with me" it sounds a little like they didn't really expect me to do that or they think that I actually didn't want to come. For example you were fighting with someone and later they ask you to come by, because they want to talk about what happened. Then you agree, although you're still mad at them. In this case it would be normal if they said something like that.



This is exactly what I was looking for. Now that I think of it, in English I would probably say something like "I'm glad we got together / got to meet up"... although it wouldn't be uncommon (for me at least) to thank a friend for finding the time to get together, for calling, etc. Maybe this is cultural?


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