How can I convert an address in Thailand from English to Thai?

Question

How can I convert an address in Thailand from English to Thai?

Motivations:

• give taxi drivers in Thailand the address in Thai
• send letters to an address in Thailand

E.g from:

25 Condo SPN Place, 7th Floor,

Room 708,

Soi Ladprao 80, Intersection 22 Ladprao Road,

Wangthonglang, Subdistrict, Wangthonglang District

Bangkok 10310

to:

25 คอนโด แส พี แอน เพลส ขั้น 7

ห้อง 708

ซอยลาดพร้าว 80 แยก 22

ถ. ลากพร้าว แชวง วังทองหลาง เขค วังทองหลาง

กรุงเทพ 10310

(Example taken from https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1019601-need-help-translating-thai-address-to-english-please/ (mirror), which I found when researching the question and according to https://redd.it/hhi4f9 is imperfect.)

I tried Google Translate but the translation was far from perfect.

Answer 1

If you're looking for a fully automated way, you can't. Thai romanization is nonstandard and lossy, and Thai script has many redundant letters, so you can't tell if a "kh" is supposed to be ข kho khai or ค kho khwai, much less get the vital tone markings right.

However! If you punch in a romanized Thai address into Google Maps (in the mobile app), and it can work it out, it will offer you the Thai script version as well, complete with a handy speaker button for reading it out loud:

That said, while this works well for major landmarks, for some addresses like your example it doesn't recognize the building itself. It'll still get you in the vicinity though. You will also often need to manually strip all extra info like floor/unit so it doesn't mistakenly latch onto those.

Answer 2

Here's what I do:

• Keep the building name in latin characters
• Learn to write "floor", "room", "house" and "soi"
• Translate the Thanon using Wikipedia or Google Maps (for smaller streets)
• Translate the Tambon, Amphoe and Changwat using Wikipedia

Answer 3

One solution from Reddit (mirror) posted by users cranialmatters and bingy_bongy_bangy, also based on Google Maps:

If you find the address on google maps in English, then change the language to Thai (to do this, paste ?hl=th onto the end of the URL) while you have the address pinned you may then get the Thai address.

Example with the address "847 Phetchaburi Rd, Thanon Phaya Thai, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400":

• English: https://www.google.com/maps/place/847+Phetchaburi+Rd,+Khwaeng+Thanon+Phaya+Thai,+Khet+Ratchathewi,+Krung+Thep+Maha+Nakhon+10400/@13.7513251,100.5380502,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x30e29ecf52b8efe7:0xaf2ab112d2106745!8m2!3d13.7513251!4d100.5402389 (mirror)
• Thai: https://www.google.com/maps/place/847+Phetchaburi+Rd,+Khwaeng+Thanon+Phaya+Thai,+Khet+Ratchathewi,+Krung+Thep+Maha+Nakhon+10400/@13.7513251,100.5380502,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x30e29ecf52b8efe7:0xaf2ab112d2106745!8m2!3d13.7513251!4d100.5402389?hl=th (mirror), which gives "847 ถนน เพชรบุรี, แขวง ถนนพญาไท เขตราชเทวี, กรุงเทพมหานคร 10400"