Today I want to talk about two common expressions that can be used before or after meeting someone. Students and tutors use them a lot before and after lessons, but sometimes they cause a little confusion.

Before a meeting, see you soon generally implies that you have made a plan to meet in the near future (at a known time). This could be in a few minutes, hours, or days.

After a meeting, see you soon generally implies that you have made a plan to meet again in the near future (at a known time). This could be in a few hours or a few days. For this function, it may be clearer to say see you again soon.

Before a meeting, see you later could be used if the meeting is several days or weeks away. It would not be appropriate to use it a few minutes before a meeting.

After a meeting, see you later is just another way to say goodbye. It generally implies that there is no plan to meet again, but it may happen at some point (at an unknown time). Later is likely to be in a few days or even weeks, but it can be sooner in some cases. You can be more specific by saying something like see you later tonight. 

Conclusion

It’s generally better to use see you soon before an upcoming meeting (such as when booking a lesson or sending a message right before a lesson starts) and see you later after a meeting (such as when you say goodbye at the end of a lesson).

Other options

To be a little more formal, use I’ll before see you soon or see you later.

Talk to you soon and talk to you later are almost the same as see you soon / later. An informal way to express this idea is catch you later, but it is not used with soon.

If you have a plan and want to be specific, you can say something like see you on Tuesday. Remember to use in with months (e.g. June), on with days (e.g. Tuesday) and dates (e.g. the 17th), and at with times (e.g. 6 PM). You can also use in about/around with time estimates, such as see you in about 10 minutes.

You can say see you next time if you’re expecting to see the person again at some point, especially if you’re following some sort of schedule, such as taking a lesson once per week. It generally means that you have a plan, but you may or may not have a specific time in mind yet.

You can say see you then if it’s clear from context that you’re referring to a specific time. It’s a way to avoid repeating the time. For example,...

A: See you next weekend!

B: OK, see you then! 

I hope this will help you to use see you soon and see you later!

Zach