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. | /Hādhā akhī ŝāliħun./ | Who is this? | /Man hādhā?/ | Singular masculine |
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| This is my sister Saliha. | /Hādhihi ukhtī ŝāli ħatu./ | Who is this? | /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? | /Man hādhān-i ar-raĵul-ān-i?/ | Dual, masculine |
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| These two girls are my sisters. | /hātān-i al-bint-ān-i ukhtāy./ | Who are these two girls? | /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? | /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? | /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 |
|
| This is Khalid’s book. | /Hādhā kitāb-u khâlidin./ | Whose book is this? | /kitāb-u man hādhā?/ |
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| This is Salih’s wife. | /Hādhihi zawĵat-u ŝāliħin./ | Whose wife is this? | /zawĵat-u man hādhihi?/ |
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| This is Saliha’s husband. | /Hādhā zawĵ-u ŝâliħata./ | Whose husband is this? | /zawĵu man hādhā?/ |
- To sum up, (مَنْ) /man/ is an indeclinable Interrogative (questioning) noun used to ask about animate.