لَقِيَ joins a very common human meaning—“meet, encounter”—to a genuinely difficult paradigm. Its root is ل-ق-ي, Form I, and the final ي behaves differently in لَقِيَ, يَلْقَى, لَمْ يَلْقَ, and اِلْقَ. These are forms of one defective, or final-weak, verb rather than unrelated stems.
The syntax is simpler than the morphology: the person or thing encountered is normally a direct object. لقيت صديقي means “I met my friend.” English meet covers many institutional expressions that Arabic assigns to other verbs, however, so لقي does not automatically translate meet a requirement, meet a deadline, or meet someone’s needs.
Lookup card: لَقِيَ — يَلْقَى
The perfect preserves yāʾ, but the unsuffixed imperfect ends in alif maqṣūra. In the jussive and masculine-singular imperative, that final long vowel is deleted.
| Part | Verified form | Function |
|---|---|---|
| root and Form | ل-ق-ي، Form I | final-weak in yāʾ |
| perfect, 3 m.sg. | لَقِيَ | he met / encountered |
| imperfect, 3 m.sg. | يَلْقَى | he meets / encounters |
| imperative, 2 m.sg. | اِلْقَ | meet! |
| maṣdar | لِقَاءٌ؛ لُقْيَا | meeting / encounter; لِقاء is the productive modern noun |
| active participle | لَاقٍ؛ اللَّاقِي | meeting / one who will meet, relatively uncommon |
| passive participle | مَلْقِيٌّ | met / encountered, uncommon |
| passive | لُقِيَ — يُلْقَى | morphologically regular but rare in contemporary prose |
Indefinite nominative or genitive لَاقٍ loses its final yāʾ, as do comparable active participles قاضٍ and ساعٍ. The yāʾ returns with the definite article or in the accusative: اللَّاقِي، لَاقِيًا. Contemporary prose generally prefers a finite verb or مُلاقٍ from Form III instead of building a heavy sentence around Form-I لاقٍ.
لقيت مديرة المشروع عند مدخل المبنى.
laqītu mudīrata l-mashrūʿi ʿinda madkhali l-mabnā.
I met the project director at the entrance to the building. (Formal neutral.)
يلقى المندوب عملاء جددا كل أسبوع.
yalqā l-mandūbu ʿumalāʾa jududan kulla ʾusbūʿ.
The representative meets new clients every week. (Formal neutral.)
A compact defective-verb paradigm
Suffixes reveal where the underlying yāʾ has gone. Before consonant-initial perfect suffixes it remains: لَقِيتُ، لَقِينَا. Before masculine plural وا, it drops: لَقُوا. In imperfect forms with person endings, the stem alternates between تلقين، يلقون and the unsuffixed يلقى.
| Environment | Form | Stem behavior |
|---|---|---|
| هو, perfect | لَقِيَ | root yāʾ is visible |
| أنا / نحن, perfect | لَقِيتُ / لَقِينَا | yāʾ remains before the suffix |
| هم, perfect | لَقُوا | yāʾ drops before وا |
| هو, indicative | يَلْقَى | final sequence surfaces as ى / ā |
| أنتِ / هم, indicative | تَلْقَيْنَ / يَلْقَوْنَ | person endings expose different stem shapes |
| هو after لم | لَمْ يَلْقَ | jussive deletes final ى |
The indicative يَلْقَى and subjunctive لن يَلْقَى look and sound alike because their final mood vowels are not separately realized on alif maqṣūra. The jussive is overtly different: لم يلقَ. See the wider pattern on the final-weak mood page.
لن يلقى الوفد الوزير قبل انتهاء الجلسة.
lan yalqā l-wafdu l-wazīra qabla ntihāʾi l-jalsa.
The delegation will not meet the minister before the session ends. (Formal.)
لم يلق الباحث أي مقاومة عند نشر النتائج.
lam yalqa l-bāḥithu ʾayya muqāwamatin ʿinda nashri n-natāʾij.
The researcher encountered no resistance when publishing the results. (Formal.)
The command اِلقَ is correct but less frequent than commands built from قابل or استقبل in everyday instructions. It is useful where “go meet/encounter” is genuinely intended. Its initial alif carries hamzat al-waṣl, unlike Form-IV أَلْقِ “throw, deliver.”
الق الوفد عند البوابة واصطحبهم إلى قاعة الاجتماع.
ilqa l-wafda ʿinda l-bawwābati wa-ṣṭaḥibhum ʾilā qāʿati l-ijtimāʿ.
Meet the delegation at the gate and escort them to the meeting room. (Formal instruction.)
Meeting a person: direct object, not automatic بـ
Form I لقي normally takes the person directly: لقيت المدير. Form VIII التقى presents a mutual meeting and commonly occurs as التقى المديرَ or التقى بالمدير in contemporary usage. Form III لاقى is also frequent in formal prose, especially with encounters and reactions such as لاقى الاقتراحُ ترحيبًا; it follows its own final-weak Form-III paradigm, treated on the لاقى reference page. Do not transfer the preposition from التقى بـ onto Form I.
لقيت زميلتي صدفة في محطة القطار.
laqītu zamīlatī ṣudfatan fī maḥaṭṭati l-qiṭār.
I happened to meet my colleague at the train station. (Formal neutral.)
التقى الرئيس بممثلي النقابات بعد الاجتماع.
iltaqā r-raʾīsu bimumaththilī n-niqābāti baʿda l-ijtimāʿ.
The president met with union representatives after the meeting. (Formal; Form VIII.)
The contrast is not simply “accidental” versus “planned.” لقي can describe either, while التقى foregrounds mutual participation and is especially frequent in reports about scheduled meetings.
Encounter, receive, and undergo
With abstract objects, لقي means “encounter, experience, receive.” The experiencer or proposal is the grammatical subject, and the reaction is a direct object: لقي دعما، معارضة، ترحيبا، صعوبة، نجاحا. This frame is extremely common in journalism and formal reporting.
لقي الاقتراح دعما واسعا من أعضاء اللجنة.
laqiya l-iqtirāḥu daʿman wāsiʿan min ʾaʿḍāʾi l-lajna.
The proposal received broad support from committee members. (Formal journalistic register.)
لقي الفريق صعوبة في الوصول إلى القرى المعزولة.
laqiya l-farīqu ṣuʿūbatan fī l-wuṣūli ʾilā l-qurā l-maʿzūla.
The team encountered difficulty reaching the isolated villages. (Formal.)
يلقى البرنامج إقبالا متزايدا منذ إطلاق نسخته الجديدة.
yalqā l-barnāmaju ʾiqbālan mutazāyidan mundhu ʾiṭlāqi nuskhatihi l-jadīda.
The program has been attracting increasing interest since its new version was launched. (Formal.)
The fixed expressions لقي حتفه and لقي مصرعه mean “met his death / was killed.” They are (formal journalistic) and can sound euphemistic. Use plain مات for neutral “died” when neither a violent cause nor journalistic register is intended.
لقي السائق مصرعه في الحادث، وأصيب راكبان.
laqiya s-sāʾiqu maṣraʿahu fī l-ḥādithi, wa-ʾuṣība rākibān.
The driver was killed in the accident, and two passengers were injured. (Formal journalistic register.)
Reaction frames and the rare passive
The normal Form-I reaction frame is syntactically active even when English uses receive: لقي القرارُ ترحيبًا has the proposal or decision as subject and the reaction as a direct object. Formal Arabic can instead use passive قُوبِلَ الشيءُ بـ + reaction when the writer wants an explicitly passive clause.
لقي القرار ترحيبا حذرا من خبراء الاقتصاد.
laqiya l-qarāru tarḥīban ḥadhiran min khubarāʾi l-iqtiṣād.
The decision received cautious approval from economists. (Formal; active Form I.)
قوبل الطلب الناقص بالرفض.
qūbila ṭ-ṭalabu n-nāqiṣu bir-rafḍ.
The incomplete application was met with rejection. (Formal; passive of قابل.)
The morphological Form-I passive لُقِيَ — يُلْقَى is possible but uncommon in contemporary prose; it should not be taught as the default counterpart of active لقي. Unvocalized يلقى can represent active يَلْقَى “encounters” or passive يُلْقَى. The latter also overlaps completely with the much more familiar passive of Form IV ألقى “cast, deliver.” Case roles, complements, and meaning—not spelling alone—resolve the reading.
High-frequency collocations and English traps
| Arabic | Natural English / note |
|---|---|
| لَقِيَ شَخْصًا | meet someone; direct object |
| لَقِيَ دَعْمًا / مُعَارَضَةً | receive support / opposition (formal) |
| لَقِيَ صُعُوبَةً فِي | encounter difficulty in |
| لَقِيَ تَرْحِيبًا | receive a welcome / approval |
| لُقِيَ بِتَرْحِيبٍ | be received with approval (passive) |
| لَقِيَ حَتْفَهُ / مَصْرَعَهُ | meet his death / be killed (journalistic) |
| اِسْتَوْفَى الشَّرْطَ | meet a requirement—not لقي |
| لَبَّى الِاحْتِيَاجَاتِ | meet needs—not لقي |
Common Mistakes
Keeping final yāʾ after لم
❌ لم يلقي الاقتراح دعما كافيا.
Incorrect for singular Form-I لقي after لم—the jussive deletes final ى. Written يلقي belongs to other paradigms in other contexts, but not this one here.
✅ لم يلق الاقتراح دعما كافيا.
lam yalqa l-iqtirāḥu daʿman kāfiyan.
The proposal did not receive enough support.
Importing بـ into Form I
❌ لقيت بصديقي أمام المكتبة.
Incorrect with Form-I لقي ‘met’—its person object is direct. بـ is common with التقى, not required by لقي.
✅ لقيت صديقي أمام المكتبة.
laqītu ṣadīqī ʾamāma l-maktaba.
I met my friend in front of the library.
Confusing the two commands
❌ ألق ضيفك عند البوابة.
Incorrect spelling for ‘meet your guest’: initial أ points to Form IV ألقى ‘throw/deliver.’ The meeting command has hamzat al-waṣl: الق.
✅ الق ضيفك عند البوابة.
ilqa ḍayfaka ʿinda l-bawwāba.
Meet your guest at the gate.
Translating institutional English meet literally
❌ يلقى المنتج معايير السلامة.
Incorrect for ‘meets safety standards’—لقي describes encounter or reception, not compliance with a standard.
✅ يستوفي المنتج معايير السلامة.
yastawfī l-muntaju maʿāyīra s-salāma.
The product meets safety standards.
Key Takeaways
- لَقِيَ — يَلْقَى is final-weak Form I from root ل-ق-ي.
- Singular jussive and imperative delete the final long vowel: لم يلقَ، اِلقَ.
- A person met is a direct object: لقيت صديقي; do not borrow بـ automatically from التقى بـ.
- Abstract direct objects give frequent formal meanings: لقي دعما، معارضة، صعوبة، ترحيبا.
- Passive reception changes the frame to لُقِيَ الشيءُ بـ + reaction.
- English institutional meet often requires another verb: استوفى شرطا، لبّى حاجة.
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