Language/Standard-arabic/Grammar/Question-formation
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As a Standard Arabic language teacher for 20 years, I am excited to teach you about interrogatives in Arabic and how to form questions. In this lesson, you will learn the different question words in Arabic and how to use them to form questions.
Question words
Question words are used to ask information or clarification. In Arabic, there are several question words that you need to know. Here are the most common ones:
- مَنْ (man) - Who
- مَاذَا (mādha) - What
- مَتَى (matā) - When
- أَيْنَ (ʾayna) - Where
- لِمَاذَا (limādha) - Why
- كَمْ (kam) - How many / how much
- كَيْفَ (kayfa) - How
Notice that in Arabic, the question word usually precedes the subject of the sentence. In other words, the sentence order is different from the declarative form.
Question formation
To form a yes/no question in Arabic, you simply add the particle "هَلْ" (hal) at the beginning of the sentence. This particle does not have a specific meaning and can be translated as "is/are/will" depending on the context. For example:
- هَلْ تَتَكَلَّمُ اللُّغَةَ العَرَبِيَّةَ؟ (hal tatkallemu al-lughah al-ʿarabiyyah) - Do you speak Arabic?
To form an open-ended question with question words, you usually start with the question word followed by a verb and then the subject. Here is an example:
- مَتَى يَأْكُلُ الطِّفْلُ الفَطِيرَ؟ (matā yaʾkulu al-ṭiflu al-faṭīrah) - When does the child eat the pie?
Note that the sentence order in Arabic is different from English. In English, the sentence order is usually subject-verb-object, while in Arabic it is verb-subject-object.
Here is a summary of the question formation in Arabic:
- Yes/no questions: هَلْ + verb + subject
- Open-ended questions: question word + verb + subject
Let's practice forming questions in Arabic with some examples below.
Examples
Here are some examples of open-ended questions using the question words we learned in this lesson:
| Arabic | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| مَنْ الرَّجُلُ الْقَصِيرُ فِي الصُّورَةِ؟ | man al-raǧulu al-qasīru fī al-ṣūrah? | Who is the short man in the picture? |
| مَاذَا تَأْكُلُ لِلْإِفْطَارِ؟ | māḏā taʾkulu lil-iṭfār? | What do you eat for breakfast? |
| مَتَى يَنْتَهِي الْكُرْسُوْلُ؟ | matā yan’tahī al-kursūlu? | When does the class end? |
| أَيْنَ تَسْكُنُ؟ | ʾayna taskunu? | Where do you live? |
| لِمَاذَا لَمْ تَأْكُلْ؟ | limāḏā lam taʾkul? | Why didn't you eat? |
| كَمْ سَاعَةً فِي الْيَوْمِ؟ | kam sāʿatan fī al-yawm? | How many hours in a day? |
| كَيْفَ تَقْضِي وَقْتَكَ؟ | kayfa taqḍī waqtaka? | How do you spend your time? |
Conclusion
In this lesson, we learned about question words in Arabic and how to form questions. Remember, to form a yes/no question, add "هَلْ" (hal) at the beginning of the sentence. To form an open-ended question with question words, start with the question word followed by a verb and then the subject. Practice forming questions in Arabic using the examples in this lesson.
I hope you found this lesson helpful. Stay tuned for the next lesson in the "Complete 0 to A1 Standard Arabic Course."
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