Nearside and offside: which side of the car is which?
Last updated: 3 Nov 2026
On a UK car, the nearside (N/S) is the left-hand side and the offside (O/S) is the right-hand side, as if you were sitting in the driver's seat looking forward. Getting it wrong is the most common reason a used headlight, wing mirror or door turns out to be the wrong one.
The short answer
- Nearside (N/S, NS): the left, passenger side on a UK car. The side nearest the kerb.
- Offside (O/S, OS): the right, driver's side on a UK car. The side nearest the middle of the road.
- Front and rear are added in front: NSF is nearside front (front left), OSR is offside rear (back right).
- Left and right are always as seen from the driver's seat, never standing in front of the car looking at it.
Why it trips people up
Standing in front of a car, its left is on your right. Sellers and parts catalogues always mean the car's own left and right, so picture yourself in the driver's seat.
On an imported left-hand-drive car the driver sits on the left, but the nearside is still the left: the names come from the kerb in the UK, not from where the steering wheel is. Headlights are a separate catch: left-hand-drive headlights dip the wrong way for UK roads, so check a used headlight came from a UK car.
Common abbreviations in parts listings
- NSF / OSF: nearside front, offside front (front left, front right).
- NSR / OSR: nearside rear, offside rear (back left, back right).
- LH / RH: left hand, right hand (the same as nearside and offside on a UK car).
- LHD / RHD: left-hand drive, right-hand drive. Matters for headlights, dashboards, steering racks and wiper linkages.
Search by side on Vehicle Part Finder
Our search knows that "left", "nearside" and "N/S" mean the same thing (and "right", "offside" and "O/S"), so "front left headlight" also finds parts listed as "N/S front headlight". Add your registration and we only show parts listed as fitting your car. Search for a part or browse by make.