Lesson 42الدَّرْسُ الثَّاني والأرْبَعونَ

Questioning Words (2 of 3)أدَوَات الاسْتِفْهام (٢ من ٣)

Introduction - مُقَدِّمَةٌ

  • This is lesson forty two of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In the previous lesson we studied four Arabic nouns out of the ten common questioning (interrogative) words, we are going to study four more of these nouns in this lesson, In-Shā’-Allâh.  The nouns we will cover are the following:

مَتَى؟

أَيْنَ؟

كَمْ؟

كَيْفَ؟

/matā/

/ayna/

/kam/

/kayfa/

When?

Where?

How many (much)?

How?

  • Please, remember that the interrogative (questioning) words are indeclinable.  Most of these words are nouns, so they, originally, occupy the position of the subject in a nominal sentence.  Two out of the ten interrogative words are particles. These particles will be studied in the following lesson In-Shā’-Allâh.
  • We learnt earlier that each one of these interrogative nouns or particles has a function and a meaning.
  • The following table summarizes the second four interrogative (questioning) words and an example for each of them:

Picture

Answer

Example Question

Interrogative word

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

I wake up at 7 o’clock.

أَسْتَيْقِظُ السَّاعَةَ السَّابِعَةَ.

/Astayqiđhu as-sāξata as-sābiξata./

When do you wake up?

مَتَى تَسْتَيْقِظُ؟

/Matā tastayqiđhu?/

When?

مَتَى؟

/Matā/

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I pray in the mosque.

أُصَلِّي فِي المَسْجِدِ.

/uŝallī fī al-masjidi./

Where do you pray?

أَيْنَ تُصَلِّي؟

/Ayna tuŝallī?/

Where?

أَيْنَ؟

/Ayna/

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It is cold today.

الجَوُّ بَارِدٌ اليَوْمَ.

/al-ĵawwu bāridun al-yawma./

How is the weather today?

كَيْفَ الجَوُّ اليَوْمَ؟

/Kayfa al-ĵawwu al-yawma?/

How?

كَيْفَ؟

/Kayfa/

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I am 30 years old.

عُمْرِي ثَلاثُونَ عَامًا.

/ξumri thalāthūna ξāman./

How old are you?

كَمْ عُمْرُكَ؟

/Kam ξumruk?/

How many/ how much?

كَمْ؟

/Kam/

  • In the following four parts we will study each one of the above mentioned interrogatives In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing), while part five will be for the exercises.