กว่าจะ

By the Time

Level 4

กว่าจะ introduces the event being reached. The next clause tells what is true by that point or what effort is needed beforehand. All four examples here use ก็ in the second clause.

How It Works

Find The Endpoint
The first two examples reach home or reach mutual understanding. Their second clauses describe how late it is or how much time has been spent. In the conversation example, ไปนาน describes a long duration.

Find The Subject
In กว่าเขาจะสอบผ่าน, เขา appears between กว่า and จะ. In กว่าคุณจะทำเสร็จ, คุณ appears in the same position. Follow this word order when reading those clauses.

Read The Time And Effort
The exam sentence describes the hard study needed before passing. It does not give a date or separately state that the person has already passed. The home and conversation examples describe the situation at the endpoint; the final example looks ahead to completion.

Keep The Probability
In กว่าคุณจะทำเสร็จ ฉันก็คงหลับไปก่อน, คง marks probability: the speaker expects to have fallen asleep before the other person finishes. ไปก่อน gives that earlier timing.

Connect The Two Clauses
ก็ links the second clause in all four examples. Read the entire second clause to see what is true at the endpoint, what effort is required beforehand, or what is expected to happen first.

Examples (4)

  1. กว่าจะถึงบ้าน ก็ดึกแล้ว

    By the time I finally got home, it was already late.

    Word by Word: by the time | reach home | then | late | already

    The first clause reaches home; the second says it is already late. The subject is not stated in the Thai; I supplies a reading for this example, not a claim that the sentence always names the speaker. No traffic or distance cause is specified.

  2. กว่าจะคุยกันรู้เรื่อง ก็เสียเวลาไปนาน

    By the time we finally understood each other, a lot of time had been spent.

    Word by Word: by the time | talk together | understand each other | then | spend time | for a long time

    คุยกันรู้เรื่อง describes understanding one another through talking. เสียเวลาไปนาน describes time spent; นาน is long in duration. The Thai does not explicitly name who participated.

  3. กว่าเขาจะสอบผ่าน เขาก็ต้องอ่านหนังสือหนักมาก

    Before they can pass the exam, they have to study very hard.

    Word by Word: before | they | can pass the exam | they | then | must | study | very hard

    This reads the sentence as the effort required before passing. เขา does not specify gender here. จะ does not by itself prove that the exam has already been passed; no completed-past fact is added.

  4. กว่าคุณจะทำเสร็จ ฉันก็คงหลับไปก่อน

    By the time you finish, I will probably have fallen asleep first.

    Word by Word: by the time | you | finish doing it | I | then | probably | fall asleep | first

    The sentence anticipates the other person’s completion. คง marks the speaker’s expectation as probable, and ไปก่อน indicates falling asleep before that completion.

Common Mistakes

  • Choose The Sentence About Reaching Home

    กว่าจะคุยกันรู้เรื่อง ก็เสียเวลาไปนาน
    กว่าจะถึงบ้าน ก็ดึกแล้ว

    For this task, choose กว่าจะถึงบ้าน ก็ดึกแล้ว. It says that it was already late on reaching home; the Thai leaves the subject unstated. กว่าจะคุยกันรู้เรื่อง ก็เสียเวลาไปนาน describes time spent before people understood each other. Both sentences are grammatical; only the home sentence matches the requested meaning.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

กว่าจะLevel 4By the Time

Learn This First

กว่าจะ is a compound pattern used to describe the time or effort taken before an event finally occurs. To understand it, you need to be familiar with the comparative marker 'กว่า' and the future/intention marker 'จะ', which together create the sense of 'by the time' or 'before finally'.

Words in This Pattern

กว่า