Lesson 41 – الدَّرْس الحادي والأرْبَعُونَ

Interrogative (questioning) Articles (1 of 3) – أدَوَات الاسْتِفْهام (١ من ٣)

The Interrogative (questioning) noun: مَــنْ /man/

  • We are still in lesson forty one of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • We have first to highlight the difference between the Arabic interrogative (questioning) word /man/ (مَنْ) with a fatħah vowel over the first letter and the preposition min (مِنْ) which means ‘from’ with a Kasrah vowel over the first letter.
  • (مَنْ) /Man/ is an interrogative (questioning) noun, which is indeclinable, i.e. its case-ending is always sukūn and does not change as we discussed in lesson 25 the declinable and indeclinable words.
  • We use (مَنْ) /man/ when we ask about a human being, an animate or a person that can be a singular, masculine such as (طَالِب) or feminine such as (طَالِبَةٌ); dual such as (طَالِبان); or plural such as (طُلاَّب).
  • (مَنْ) /Man/ is used to ask a question about singular, dual and plural, both masculine and feminine, as shown in the following examples:

Picture

Answer

Question

Number/gender

English

Arabic

English

Arabic

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This is my brother Salih.

هَذا أَخِي صَالِحٌ.

 /Hādhā akhī ŝāliħun./

Who is this?

مَنْ هَذا؟

/Man hādhā?/

Singular masculine

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This is my sister Saliha.

هَذِهِ أُخْتِي صَالِحَةُ.

/Hādhihi ukhtī ŝāli ħatu./

Who is this?

مَنْ هَذِهِ؟

/Ma hādhihi?/

Singular, feminine

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These two men are my father and my uncle.

هَذَان الرَّجُلانِ أَبِي وَعَمِّي.

/hādhān-i ar-raĵul-āni abī wa-ξammī/

Who are these two men?

مَنْ هَذَانِ الرَّجُلانِ؟

/Man hādhān-i ar-raĵul-ān-i?/

Dual, masculine

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These two girls are my sisters.

هَاتان البِنْتانِ أُخْتَاي.

/hātān-i al-bint-ān-i ukhtāy./

Who are these two girls?

مَن هَاتانِ البِنْتَانِ؟

/Man hātāni al-bint-ān-i?/

Dual feminine

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These youths are my friends.

هَؤلاء الشَّبَابُ أَصْدِقَائِي.

/hā’ulā’-i ash-shabāb-u aŝdiqâ’i./

Who are these youths?

مَنْ هَؤُلاءِ الشَّبَابُ؟

/Man hā’ulā’-i ash-shabāb-u?/

Plural masculine

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These women are nurses in the hospital.

هَؤلاءِ النِّساءُ مُمَرِّضاتٌ فِي المُسْتَشْفَى.

/hā’ulā’-i an-nisā’-u mumarri đāt-un fi al-mustashfā./

Who are these women?

مَنْ هَؤلاءِ النِّساءُ؟

/Man hā’ulā’-I an-nisā’-u?/

Plural feminine

  • From the examples above, we notice that (مَنْ) /man/ comes, originally, at the beginning of the sentence. It can also come in the middle of the sentence as a muđhāf Ilaihi (annexed noun). Its case-ending does not change from sukūn to Kasrah, though. View the following examples where (مَنْ) /man/ comes in the middle of the sentence:

Picture

Translation

Answer

Translation

Question

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This is Khalid’s book.

هذا كِتابُ خَالِدٍ.

/Hādhā kitāb-u khâlidin./

Whose book is this?

كِتَابُ  مَنْ  هَذَا؟

/kitāb-u man hādhā?/

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This is Salih’s wife.

هَذِهِ زَوْجَةُ صَالِحٍ.

/Hādhihi zawĵat-u  ŝāliħin./

Whose wife is this?

زَوْجَةُ مَنْ هَذِه؟

/zawĵat-u man hādhihi?/

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This is Saliha’s husband.

هَذا زَوْجُ صَالِحَةَ.

/Hādhā

zawĵ-u  ŝâliħata./

Whose husband is this?

زَوْجُ مَنْ هَذَا؟

/zawĵu man hādhā?/

  • To sum up, (مَنْ) /man/ is an indeclinable Interrogative (questioning) noun used to ask about animate.