# Thai: กลัวว่าจะไม่ได้เจอกัน



## Shini

A Thai friend of mine wrote me this sentence. We were talking about the possibility of me going to meet them again. So she said "you should tell me when you come so I can tell the others [friends]. We are studying in various cities across the country, กลัวว่าจะไม่ได้เจอกัน"

I think it means "I was afraid we would have never seen each other/have a chat together again". But I also think it could mean "I'm afraid we hardly will be able to be all together if you come".
Am I close?


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## dannyw

This reply is probably too late to help you, but I just saw your question today and I thought I'd take a shot. My Thai is pretty basic, but from the context it sounds like we can understand the omission of pronouns to mean just something like 'I'm concerned that we (you, her, friends) won't (get a chance to) meet up (if you don't let us know when you're coming so we can make plans)'. 

I can see you might be concerned about the location of the ไม่ได้ -- it looks like it means 'didn't' rather than 'can't'. But I don't think that makes sense with the 'จะ'. When I checked in Smyth's 'Thai -- an essential grammar' it looks to me like 11.4.2 'To contradict an assumption'. So it may mean more like just "won't" than "can't".

My Sprachgefuehl for Thai is minimal, but I don't see any evidence for the 'would have never seen' and 'hardly... all... if...' elements. 

...Hmm. Preview shows my paragraph breaks are being ignored. Let's see what happens when I post this msg. ...Huh. Maybe I should have enabled Javascript first. ...Yep. Now the paragraph breaks are retained and my quote marks aren't converted to "&quot;". Heigh ho.


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## erins

Very good translation, dannyw. Said another way, "I'm afraid we won't get to see each other."


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## Shini

Thank you both. 
Actually that was what I meant with my second translation...
I added some elements just to make it clearer: "hardly" because there was a possibility to meet up despite all, "all together" because I'm sure she means not only the two of us, but the whole group of friends, and the "if you come" was implied. 
I didn't need a very literal translation, just the general meaning, that's why I've felt free to add something, knowing the context. 

P.S. As for my first translation, after posting here I thought about the sentence for a while and I was pretty sure it wasn't correct.

Again, thanks.


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## Nucleara

Hello Shini, am I too late ? : p*
Well I think I would post something here since I'm Thai. 

Yes, context is necessary. To me, generally "กลัวว่าจะไม่ได้เจอกัน" means the first translation of yours. But okay it could also mean "I'm afraid we will hardly be able to be all together if you come" . You just need to find out what the point of your friend was.  "I'm afraid we won't get to see each other." sounds best ,I guess.


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## Shini

Sawatdee Nucleara 

It's never too late to learn some more... so thank you for your answer. That was really helpful, especially because you're a native. Kob kun na ka


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## Nucleara

Shini said:


> Sawatdee Nucleara
> 
> It's never too late to learn some more... so thank you for your answer. That was really helpful, especially because you're a native. Kob kun na ka


 
Haha, you´re welcome


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