How to Say “Turn right” in Thai
เลี้ยวขวา
líaw-khwǎa
Turn right
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," ขวา (khwǎa) means "right." Thai taxi drivers use a lot of hand gestures alongside words — pointing right while saying เลี้ยวขวา gets the message across. หยุดตรงนี้ (yùt-trong-níi) means "stop here" to end the ride.
Why you've seen it spelled differently
You may have seen เลี้ยวขวา written as: liao khwa, leo kwa, liaw kwa.
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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