How to say go straight in Thai

Go straight in Thai is ตรงไป, pronounced trong-pai.

Hear it

The tones, syllable by syllable

Thai uses pitch to tell words apart, so each syllable has its own tone. The accent on each romanized syllable shows it:

• trong: mid tone
• pai: mid tone

No accent means mid, a grave accent (à) low, a circumflex (â) falling, an acute (á) high, and a caron (ǎ) rising. New to tones? The five Thai tones, explained without jargon.

Make it polite

Add ครับ (khráp) at the end if you're a man, ค่ะ (khâ) if you're a woman: ตรงไปครับ or ตรงไปค่ะ. Thais add these particles to most sentences, and they make a big difference to how you come across.

When to use it

• In a taxi or tuk-tuk, start with ไป…ได้ไหม (pai … dâai-mǎi), can you go to …?, and name the destination after pai.
• Then steer: ตรงไป (go straight), เลี้ยวซ้าย (líao-sáai, turn left), เลี้ยวขวา (líao-khwǎa, turn right) and จอดตรงนี้ (jòot-trong-níi, stop here).
• In a Bangkok taxi, ask for the meter first: เปิดมิเตอร์หน่อย (pə̀ət-mí-tə̂ə-nòi). And ตรงไปเลย means just keep going straight.

Say it and see your pitch line

Tap the button, say ตรงไป, and glot.it draws your pitch line over the pitch of a reference Thai voice, so you can see where a tone slipped instead of guessing by ear. Your microphone turns on only when you tap.

More Thai phrases

• How to say how much in Thai (เท่าไหร่)
• How to say help in Thai (ช่วยด้วย)
• How to say thank you in Thai (ขอบคุณ)
• How to say hospital in Thai (โรงพยาบาล)

These come from our list of Thai phrases for travelers. See every guide on the Learn Thai hub.