إلى اللقاء.

In normal pause, you will usually hear ʾilā l-liqāʾ.

In fully inflected MSA, if you continue speaking and pronounce the case ending, it can be ʾilā l-liqāʾi.

A rough guide is:

• إلى = ʾi-lā
• اللقاء = l-li-qāʾ in this phrase

The stress is mainly on -lā and -qāʾ.

• إلى means to or until
• اللقاء means the meeting or the encounter

So the phrase is literally something like until the meeting or until our next meeting, which is why it is used as see you or see you later.

Two pronunciation rules are happening:

1. The الـ in the definite article has hamzat al-waṣl, so its initial vowel is not pronounced after a preceding word.
2. The next letter is ل, which is a sun letter, so the l of the article merges with it.

So:

• written: إلى اللقاء
• pronounced: ʾilā l-liqāʾ

That is why you hear what sounds like a doubled l.

Because this is an idiomatic leave-taking expression. Arabic often uses short set phrases that are not built the same way as English.

So instead of literally saying I will see you, Arabic uses a phrase meaning until the next meeting. It functions naturally as a goodbye, even though the grammar is different from English.

In fully inflected MSA, it is:

إِلَى اللِّقَاءِ

The noun اللِّقاء is in the genitive because it comes after the preposition إلى.

So grammatically:

• إلى = preposition
• the following noun takes the genitive case

In everyday speech, and especially at the end of a sentence, that final case vowel is often not pronounced, so learners usually hear إلى اللقاء as ʾilā l-liqāʾ.

The final ء is a hamza, a glottal stop.

It is a real consonant, not a silent letter. You can think of it as a small catch in the throat, a bit like the break in uh-oh.

So لقاء is not just liqā. It is liqāʾ.

That final ى is called alif maqṣūra. In this word, it is pronounced as a long ā sound.

So even though it looks a little different, إلى ends with the same vowel sound you would expect in ʾilā.

It does not sound like y here.

It is generally neutral and polite.

It works very well in:

• Modern Standard Arabic
• classrooms
• writing
• speeches
• news and media
• polite conversation

It is not extremely formal, but it is more MSA-like than many everyday dialect goodbyes. In daily spoken dialect, people may use other expressions more often, but إلى اللقاء is widely understood.

Yes. This expression does not change for gender or number.

You can say it to:

• one man
• one woman
• two people
• a group

That makes it an easy, useful phrase for beginners.

A very common reply is simply:

إلى اللقاء

People can also reply with other goodbye expressions such as:

• مع السلامة
• سلام

But repeating إلى اللقاء back is completely natural and safe for an MSA learner.