ศาลาชุมนุม

[Toffeeman]

I am a little confused with these 2 words. To me they mean 'just' as in recently.

I remember a Thai teacher telling me they are basically the same with เพิ่ง being a bit more formal so I have tended to use พึ่ง.
Never had a problem until recently when in response to a 'line' message I used พึ่ง to say I have just done something. The Thai person said I should have used เพิ่ง instead. They then said they weren't the same but we didn't have time to talk more and so haven't been able to ask them how they are different.

On this site they seem to have the same meaning:
เพิ่งไป pheerngF bpaiM <subject> has just gone
เขาพึ่งไป khaoR pheungF bpaiM "He just went."

I checked the RID under เพิ่ง and it referred me to พึ่ง ๒.

Can anyone explain the difference please?

[Tgeezer]

My confidence in the RID is shaken but the second word พึ่ง has the example: เขาพึ่งไป เพิ่งก็ว่า . Maybe since เพิ่ง has only the one meaning some people think it should be given that meaning exclusively.

[Toffeeman]

Been doing some more research on it and found some interesting threads in Thai forums about this subject. Seems Thais are confused too.
http://pantip.com/topic/32189885
http://www.dek-d.com/board/view/523190/
http://talk.mthai.com/topic/25905

Reading through a good number of the posts it seems to me that the majority of people say เพิ่ง is the correct word but many others say either is fine and point to the RID in support. It seems some people only know 1 meaning for พึ่ง (depend on, rely) and therefore say it is wrong but others point out it has 2 meanings. The 2nd is comparable to เพิ่ง.

[Tgeezer]

Such is the nature of language.

[David and Bui]

คุณ Toffeeman,

In response to your question, I searched through a set of newspaper articles to see under what circumstances Thais commonly use พึ่ง and เพิ่ง in writing. Almost all uses of พึ่ง involved dependency in phrases such as "พึ่งพาอาศัย" "พึ่งบารมีผู้มีอำนาจ" and "เป็นที่พึ่ง".

There was an exception, this use of the word to mean "recently":

"ความจริงเรื่องราวเหล่านี้ไม่ใช่พึ่งจะเกิดขึ้นในวงการค้าข้าวกับรัฐบาล"

With respect to เพิ่ง, I found only the temporal usage usage, such as

"ชายหนุ่มหน้าตาดีคนนี้เพิ่งจะขึ้นมาจากสถานีรถไฟใต้ดิน"

I understand that this is anecdotal evidence, not proof based on a large sample.

[Tgeezer]

คุณ Toffeeman,

In response to your question, I searched through a set of newspaper articles to see under what circumstances Thais commonly use พึ่ง and เพิ่ง in writing. Almost all uses of พึ่ง involved dependency in phrases such as "พึ่งพาอาศัย" "พึ่งบารมีผู้มีอำนาจ" and "เป็นที่พึ่ง".

There was an exception, this use of the word to mean "recently":

"ความจริงเรื่องราวเหล่านี้ไม่ใช่พึ่งจะเกิดขึ้นในวงการค้าข้าวกับรัฐบาล"

With respect to เพิ่ง, I found only the temporal usage usage, such as

"ชายหนุ่มหน้าตาดีคนนี้เพิ่งจะขึ้นมาจากสถานีรถไฟใต้ดิน"

I understand that this is anecdotal evidence, not proof based on a large sample.

That is the point I think, David, เพิ่ง is how people say พึ่ง as an adverb meaning just occurred. When saying อย่าพึ่งกระทำ the RID has recorded more variation of tone which is to be expected I suppose since อย่าพึ่ง is censorious and you may want to be a little softer เพิ่ง เพิก or เพ่อ
I am guessing but the variation in อย่าพึ่ง could come about because some people don't feel that they have the right to be censorious, a Western trend?

[Kurozero77]

From the official Thai dictionary,

เพิ่ง = ว. พึ่ง. (ดู พึ่ง๒)

This means these two words have the same meaning.

However, there are more than one meaning for "พึ่ง"

เพิ่ง, พึ่ง = just, recently

พึ่งพา, พึ่ง(another definition) = depend on (something)

Ex. รัฐบาลต้องพึ่งพาภาษีประชาชน = The government must depend on [people's] taxes.

[Toffeeman]

Thanks for everyone's comments.

Can I ask Kurozero77 which word he uses when saying he has just done something?

[Kurozero77]

Thanks for everyone's comments.

Can I ask Kurozero77 which word he uses when saying he has just done something?

"เขาพึ่งทำงานเสร็จ" and "เขาเพิ่งทำงานเสร็จ" both have the same meaning "He just finish his work," or "He has just done his work completely."