Lesson 43 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّالِثُ وَالأرْبَعونَ

Interrogative Words (3 of 3) – أدَوَات الاسْتِفْهام (٣من ٣)

Introduction - مُقَدِّمَةٌ

  • This is lesson forty three of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In the previous two lessons we studied the following Arabic interrogatives (question words):

مَنْ

مَا

مَاذَا

لِمَاذَا

مَتَى

أَيْنَ

كَمْ

كَيْفَ

/man/

/mā/

/mādhā/

/limādhā/

/matā/

/ayna/

/kam/

/kayfa/

Who

What

What

why

When

Where

How many (much)

how

  • The above mentioned interrogatives are all nouns. In this lesson, In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing), we will study the last two interrogatives,أَ - هَل  (/hal/ - /’a/). They are both particles, not nouns so they don't occupy a position in the sentence itself, i.e. there needs to be a full sentence following these particles. In the table below there are examples of these two interrogative particles:

picture

Answer

Example Question

Interrogative word

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

Yes, I am British.

نَعَمْ، أَنَا بِرِيطانِي.

/Naξam, ana biritâni./

Are you British?

هَلْ أَنْتَ بِرِيطَانِي؟

/Hal anta biriŧâni?/

(for Yes/no questions)

هَلْ

/Hal/

Madinaharabic.com lesson image

No, I do not like tea.

لا، لا أُحِبُّ الشَّايَ.

/Lā, lā uħibbu ash-shāya./

Do you like tea?

أَتُحِبُّ الشَّايَ؟

/Atuħibbu ash-shāya?/

(for Yes/no questions)

أَ

(الهَمْزَة)

The hamza /a-/

  • This table summarizes the two remaining interrogatives that we will study in this lesson in part two.  We will not study each of the interrogatives in a separate part because (as you will see) these two particles have the same meaning and function.  In part three there will be exercises on these two particles, while in parts no. 4, 5, and 6 we will have general exercises on all interrogatives studied in this lesson and in the previous two lessons.  Finally in part 7 there will vocabulary revision related to this lesson.