How to Say “Turn left” in Thai
เลี้ยวซ้าย
líaw-sáay
Turn left
ค่ะ and ครับ are polite particles — they depend on the speaker's gender, not the listener's.
When to use it
เลี้ยว (lîao) means "to turn," ซ้าย (sáai) means "left." When giving directions to a taxi driver: เลี้ยวซ้ายตรงนั้น (lîao-sáai-trong-nán) — "turn left there." Pair with ตรงไป (trong-bpai) — "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 →
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