Interrogatives in Arabic are divided into two categories.
- Interrogative pronouns / أَسْماء الاِسْتِفْها
- Two interrogative particles / حَرْفا الاِسْتِفْهام
Interrogative pronouns / أَسْماء الاِسْتِفْها
| who/whom? | مَنْ ؟ |
| what? | ما ؟ |
| what? | ماذا ؟ |
| when? | مَتى ؟ |
| when (in the future)? | أَيّانَ ؟ |
| where? | أَيْنَ ؟ |
| how? | كَيْفَ ؟ |
| From where? | أَنّى ؟ |
| How much/many? | كَمْ ؟ |
| which? | أَيّ ؟ |
Note: All of them are indeclinable (مَبْنِيّة) at the exception of أَيّ usually completed by a singular noun whose gender it can take.
Which player do you prefer? أَيُّ لاعِبٍ تُفَضِّلُ ؟ What year do you graduate? في أَيّةِ سَنَةٍ تَتَخَرَّجُ ؟
Note 2: The interrogative كَمْ , is usually followed by either:
- a noun in the accusative case (مَنْصُوب), which provides clarification (refer to the section on “disambiguation/ تَمْيِيز”)
- the preposition مِنْ combined with a singular or plural noun to denote quantity. This can be applied to items that are difficult or impossible to count.
How many pens did you buy? كَمْ قَلَمًا اِشْتَرَيْتَ ؟ How many guests came to the wedding? كَمْ مِنْ الضُيُوف جاءوا في العُسْرِ؟
Interrogative pronouns preceded by a preposition
| why? | لِماذا/لِمَ ؟ |
| with who? | مَعَ مَنْ ؟ |
| to whom? | لِمَنْ ؟ |
| about who? | عَمَّن ؟ |
| from what? | مِمَّ ؟ |
| with what? | بِمَ ؟ |
| from where? | مِنْ أَيْنَ ؟ |
| to where? | إِلى أَيْنَ ؟ |
| how much? | بِكَمْ=كَمْ ؟ |
Note: When certain prepositions are attached to the interrogative ما, its alif ا will be lost.
Note 2: The interrogatives مِنْ and ما are often found preceded by the prepositions عَنْ and مِنْ, which causes an assimilation of the final ن from the preposition to be merged with initial letter of these two words, hence why we see a shadda ( ّ ).
The two interrogative particles / حَرْفا الاِسْتِفْهام
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