The central relation expressed by لـ is that something is assigned or oriented to a participant. A message is addressed to someone, a gift is for someone, a book belongs to someone, and an action is performed for a purpose. This single network explains why English may translate لـ as to, for, or belonging to—and why translating every English to with لـ fails.
لـ (li-) is a one-letter preposition and attaches to its host: لطالب “for a student,” للطالب “for the student,” له “for/to him.” It governs a genitive noun. Before most pronoun suffixes its vowel is a, not i: لَهُ، لَهَا، لَكَ, but first-person لِي remains lī.
The broader suffix system is tabulated on Pronoun Suffixes after Prepositions; the contraction and vowel changes unique to لـ are explained fully below.
Recipients and addressees
Use لـ when an entity is the recipient of something transferred, communicated, shown, or explained. The physical destination of motion normally takes إلى; the person receiving or being addressed often takes لـ.
أرسلت للمديرة نسخة من التقرير قبل الاجتماع.
ʾarsaltu lil-mudīrati nuskhatan mina t-taqrīri qabla l-ijtimāʿ.
I sent the director a copy of the report before the meeting.
شرح المهندس للعمال طريقة تشغيل الجهاز.
sharaḥa l-muhandisu lil-ʿummāli ṭarīqata tashghīli l-jihāz.
The engineer explained to the workers how to operate the device.
قلت لها إن الموعد تغير إلى يوم الخميس.
qultu lahā ʾinna l-mawʿida taghayyara ʾilā yawmi l-khamīs.
I told her that the appointment had been moved to Thursday.
The final example separates two English tos: لها marks the addressee of قلت, while إلى يوم الخميس marks the new temporal endpoint. Arabic chooses each construction by its relation and by the governing predicate.
Some transfer verbs allow more than one argument pattern. أرسلت الرسالة إلى المديرة highlights the director as the endpoint of the message's path; أرسلت للمديرة رسالة presents her as its recipient. The difference is one of construal, not a mechanical rule that people always take لـ and places always take إلى.
Beneficiaries and intended users
With a beneficiary, لـ answers “for whose benefit or use?” The beneficiary is not necessarily the recipient at that moment.
حجزت لأمي مقعدا قرب النافذة.
ḥajaztu li-ʾummī maqʿadan qurba n-nāfidha.
I reserved a seat near the window for my mother.
أعدت البلدية ممرا آمنا للمشاة وراكبي الدراجات.
ʾaʿaddati l-baladiyyatu mamarran ʾāminan lil-mushāti wa-rākibī d-darrājāt.
The municipality prepared a safe lane for pedestrians and cyclists. (Formal.)
اشتريت الكتاب لأخي بعشرين دينارا.
ishtaraytu l-kitāba li-ʾakhī biʿishrīna dīnāran.
I bought the book for my brother for twenty dinars.
In the last sentence, لأخي marks the beneficiary and بعشرين دينارا marks the price. English uses for twice; Arabic distinguishes the roles with لـ and بـ.
Possession and belonging
Arabic has no ordinary present-tense possession verb corresponding exactly to English have. One major possession pattern uses a fronted لـ phrase plus the possessed noun: لي كتاب literally “to me [is] a book.” This often expresses ownership, entitlement, or an enduring association.
لي مكتب صغير في الطابق الثاني.
lī maktabun ṣaghīrun fī ṭ-ṭābiqi th-thānī.
I have a small office on the second floor.
للموظفين حق في الاطلاع على نتائج التقييم.
lil-muwaẓẓafīna ḥaqqun fī l-iṭṭilāʿi ʿalā natāʾiji t-taqyīm.
Employees have the right to review the evaluation results. (Formal.)
هذا المعطف لسلمى، وليس لأختها.
hādhā l-miʿṭafu lisalmā, wa-laysa li-ʾukhtihā.
This coat belongs to Salma, not to her sister.
Compare لي سيارة “I own/have a car” with عندي سيارة “I have a car with me/in my possession.” In many everyday situations both can translate I have, but لـ foregrounds belonging or entitlement, while عند locates something in a person's sphere. Context can blur the difference, so this is a semantic tendency rather than an absolute ownership test.
Purpose and intended function
Purpose is another kind of assignment: an object or action is directed toward a goal. Before a noun or verbal noun, use لـ + genitive: للدراسة “for studying,” للصيانة “for maintenance.” Before an imperfect verb, purpose لـ is followed by a subjunctive form: لأشرحَ “in order that I explain.” Traditional analysis attributes that subjunctive to an understood أنْ after the lām.
جئت إلى المكتب لأشرح للمدير المشكلة.
jiʾtu ʾilā l-maktabi li-ʾashraḥa lil-mudīri l-mushkila.
I came to the office to explain the problem to the director.
خصصت الإدارة غرفة للتدريب ومراجعة الملفات.
khaṣṣaṣati l-ʾidāratu ghurfatan lit-tadrībi wa-murājaʿati l-malafāt.
Management designated a room for training and reviewing files. (Formal.)
أغلقت النافذة لأمنع دخول الغبار.
ʾaghlaqtu n-nāfidhata li-ʾamnaʿa dukhūla l-ghubār.
I closed the window to keep dust from entering.
English infinitival to is not itself an Arabic preposition. Purpose لـ is one possible Arabic construction, but a complement after “want,” for example, is أريد أن أقرأ “I want to read,” not أريد لأقرأ. The meaning and governing structure decide.
Time, duration, and allocation
لـ can assign something to a period. لمدة introduces a measured duration, while ليوم واحد can delimit an allocation or postponement to one day. A new named endpoint instead normally takes إلى, as in أجلت الجلسة إلى يوم الخميس “the hearing was postponed until Thursday.”
استأجرنا الشقة لمدة ستة أشهر.
istaʾjarnā sh-shaqqata limuddati sittati ʾashhur.
We rented the apartment for six months.
أجلت الجلسة ليوم واحد بسبب غياب الشاهد.
ʾujjilati l-jalsatu liyawmin wāḥidin bisababi ghiyābi sh-shāhid.
The hearing was postponed for one day because the witness was absent. (Formal.)
Do not generalize this to clock time: تبدأ الجلسة في الساعة العاشرة, not a productive للساعة العاشرة, means “the session starts at ten.”
The article contraction: للـ
Because لـ is already a clitic, it combines tightly with the definite article. The article's alif disappears in writing:
| Combination | Written and vocalized result | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| لِـ + الْبَيْتِ | لِلْبَيْتِ | lil-bayti |
| لِـ + الْمُدِيرِ | لِلْمُدِيرِ | lil-mudīri |
| لِـ + الطَّالِبِ | لِلطَّالِبِ | liṭ-ṭālibi |
| لِـ + الشَّرِكَةِ | لِلشَّرِكَةِ | lish-sharikati |
The spelling لالمدير is wrong: the article's alif is deleted after the prefixed lām. With a sun letter, the remaining article lām assimilates in pronunciation, as in للطالب liṭ-ṭālibi, while the normal spelling is retained.
سلمت البطاقة للطالب الذي وصل أولا.
sallamtu l-biṭāqata liṭ-ṭālibi lladhī waṣala ʾawwalan.
I handed the card to the student who arrived first.
Attached pronouns: له, لها, and لي
Before most suffixes, prepositional لـ is vocalized لَـ: لَهُ، لَهَا، لَكَ، لَنَا. The first-person singular is لِي lī. In connected speech, لهُ has -hu after the preceding a; at a natural pause it may be read lah.
| Complement | Fully vocalized form | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| me | لِي | lī |
| you (m.sg.) | لَكَ | laka |
| you (f.sg.) | لَكِ | laki |
| him/it | لَهُ | lahu |
| her/it | لَهَا | lahā |
| us | لَنَا | lanā |
| them (m.) | لَهُمْ | lahum |
هذه هي الزميلة التي كتبت لها رسالة التوصية.
hādhihi hiya z-zamīlatu llatī katabtu lahā risālata t-tawṣiya.
This is the colleague for whom I wrote the recommendation letter.
Formal Arabic keeps لها inside the relative clause. English may strand for—“the colleague I wrote the letter for”—but a bare final لـ cannot stand alone.
Formal collocations and directives
Frequent (formal) frames include وفقا لـ “according to,” استجابة لـ “in response to,” بالنسبة لـ “as for/with regard to,” and إشارة إلى “with reference to,” the last of which uses إلى, not لـ.
وفقا للبيانات المنشورة، انخفض استهلاك المياه هذا العام.
wafqan lil-bayānāti l-manshūrati, inkhafaḍa stihlāku l-miyāhi hādhā l-ʿām.
According to the published data, water consumption fell this year. (Formal.)
A different lām, traditionally called lām al-amr, precedes a jussive verb to issue a (formal) third-person directive: ليقدمْ كلُّ طالبٍ نسخةً “Let each student submit a copy.” It is related in form but is not the genitive-governing preposition described above.
ليقدم كل طالب نسخة من هويته عند التسجيل.
liyuqaddim kullu ṭālibin nuskhatan min huwiyyatihi ʿinda t-tasjīl.
Each student is to submit a copy of their ID at registration. (Formal directive.)
Common Mistakes
Choosing إلى merely because English says “to”
❌ قلت إلى المديرة إن الموعد تغير.
Incorrect—قال marks its addressee with لـ, not destination إلى.
✅ قلت للمديرة إن الموعد تغير إلى يوم الخميس.
qultu lil-mudīrati ʾinna l-mawʿida taghayyara ʾilā yawmi l-khamīs.
I told the director that the appointment had moved to Thursday. (Addressee لـ; endpoint إلى.)
Separating the one-letter preposition
❌ أرسلت نسخة ل المدير.
Incorrect—لـ attaches directly, and its combination with the article is للمدير.
✅ أرسلت نسخة للمدير وللمحاسبة.
ʾarsaltu nuskhatan lil-mudīri wa-lil-muḥāsaba.
I sent a copy to the director and to accounting.
Retaining the article's alif after لـ
❌ هذه القاعة لالإدارة فقط.
Incorrect—the alif of الـ is deleted after prefixed لـ.
✅ هذه القاعة للإدارة فقط.
hādhihi l-qāʿatu lil-ʾidārati faqaṭ.
This hall is for management only.
Giving the governed noun nominative case
❌ سلمت الملف للموظف، مع نطق الموظف بالضمة.
Incorrect in fully inflected Arabic—لـ governs genitive الموظفِ.
✅ سلمت الملف للموظف المسؤول عن الطلبات.
sallamtu l-malaffa lil-muwaẓẓafi l-masʾūli ʿani ṭ-ṭalabāt.
I handed the file to the employee responsible for applications.
Stranding لـ
❌ هذه هي الجمعية التي تبرعت ل.
Incorrect—formal Arabic attaches لـ to a resumptive pronoun.
✅ هذه هي الجمعية التي تبرعت لها العام الماضي.
hādhihi hiya l-jamʿiyyatu llatī tabarraʿtu lahā l-ʿāma l-māḍiya.
This is the association to which I donated last year.
Key Takeaways
- لـ organizes recipients, beneficiaries, belonging, rights, purpose, duration, and allocation around the idea “assigned or oriented to.”
- It is attached in writing and governs the genitive: لطالب، للطالب.
- Before the article, write للـ, deleting the article's alif; before suffixes learn له، لها، لي (lahu, lahā, lī).
- Classify English to as destination, recipient, purpose, or infinitive marker before choosing إلى, لـ, or another Arabic construction.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- بـ — with, by, in, and atA1 — Use بـ for instruments, means, manner, attachment, price, causes, oaths, and the complements selected by many common predicates.
- عن — about and away fromA1 — Use عن for distance, separation, topics, avoidance, defense, substitution, and the complements selected by common formal predicates.
- في — in, at, and withinA1 — Use في for containment, settings, time frames, abstract domains, governed complements, and attached pronouns.
- Pronoun Suffixes after PrepositionsA2 — Attach pronoun complements to Arabic prepositions while choosing the base changes required by bi-, li-, maʿa, ʿinda, min, and ilā.