(١٧) الْدرسُ الْسَّابِعُ عَشَرَ -  Lesson 17

In this part of the lesson we will learn a new Interrogative Article, Insha'Allah. We have already learnt the use of Interrogative Articles in (Lesson 4 section 4).

In this part of the lesson we will learn the rules for the Interrogative Article كَمْ meaning (How many?), Insha'Allah.  We have previously learnt that the noun following an interrogative article takes the nominative case i.e., single dhamma if the noun is definite and double dhamma if the nouns are indefinite. However this rule does not apply to the noun following the interrogative article كَمْ. The following rules are applied for the use of the interrogative article كَمْ:

• The noun following the interrogative article كَمْshould always be a singular indefinite noun i.e., it must not have the definite article اَلْْ with it, i.e.,

  • كَمْ كِتَاباً عِنْدَكَ؟ i.e., How many books do you have?
     

  • كَمْ كُرَّاسَةً مَعَكِ؟ i.e., How many books are with you?
     

• The noun following the interrogative article كَمْalways take an accusative case i.e., fathatain (double-fatha) on the last letter. It must however be remembered that a masculine indefinite noun takes an Alif along with tanwin in the accusative case but the feminine indefinite noun ending in the ة ta marboota does not take the Alif - e.g.:

  • كَمْ قَمِيْصَاً هَذَا؟ i.e., How many shirts are these?
     

  • كَمْ سَاعَةً فِي حَقِيْبَتُكَ؟ i.e., How many watches are in your bag?

• Lets look at some more examples for a better understanding of the rule: 

	English	Arabic
	How many brothers do you have Oh' Muhammad?   I have one brother	كَمْ أَخاً لَكَ يَا مُحَمَّدُ؟ لِيْ أَخٌ وَاحِدٌ
	And how many sisters do you have?   I have two sisters	وَكَمْ أُخْتاً لَكَ؟ لِيْ أُخْتَانِ
	How many wheels does a bicycle have Oh' Hamid?   It has two wheels	كَمْ عَجَلَةً لِلْدَّرَّاجَةِ يَا حَامِدُ؟ لَهَا عَجَلَتَانِ
	How many Eid festivals are there in a year Oh' Baquir?   There are two Eid festivals in a year: they are Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha	كَمْ عِيْداً فِي الْسَّنَةِ يَا بَاقِرُ؟ فِي الْسَّنَةِ عِيْدَانِ: هُمَا عِيْدُ الْفِطْرِ وَعِيْدُ الأَضْحَى