How to Say “Turn left” in Thai

เลี้ยวซ้าย

líaw sáay

Turn left

เลี้ยวซ้ายค่ะlíaw sáay khâfemale speakerเลี้ยวซ้ายครับlíaw sáay khrápmale speaker

ค่ะ (khâ) and ครับ (khráp) are polite particles — they depend on the speaker's gender, not the listener's.

Word by word

Tone colors:midlowfallinghighrising

เลี้ยวlíawVto turn

ซ้ายsáayNleft

When to use it

เลี้ยว (líaw) means "to turn," ซ้าย (sáay) means "left." When giving directions to a taxi driver: เลี้ยวซ้ายตรงนั้น (líaw-sáay-trong-nán) — "turn left there." Pair with ตรงไป (trong-pay) — "go straight" — for basic navigation.

Why you've seen it spelled differently

You may have seen เลี้ยวซ้าย written as: liao sai, leo sai, liaw sai.

There is no single standard for writing Thai in the Roman alphabet — phrasebooks, road signs, and tourist guides each follow a different system, and many just invent their own spellings. The romanization on this page uses a consistent IPA-based system that marks all five tones and distinguishes short from long vowels. The same word always gets the same spelling. Paste any Thai to see it romanized →

Related phrases

Turn right

เลี้ยวขวา

líaw khwǎa

Where is the bathroom?

ห้องน้ำอยู่ที่ไหน

hɔ̂ng-náam yùu thîi-nǎy

Stop

หยุด

yùt

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