Elementary Arabic Morphology 3

Interrogative Nounds

  1. How many interrogative nouns are there?

  2. What are man and mā exclusive to?

  3. What are mata and ayyān used for?

  4. What do ayn, kayf, and anna mean?

  5. What does kam mean?

  6. What is ay prefixed to?

  7. There are eleven interrogative nouns:مَن ، ما ، مَن ذا ، ماذا ، متیَ ، أیّان ، أین ، کیف ، أنّیَ ، کم ، و أيّ.

  8. مَن is exclusive to beings with intellects, for example: مَن فَعَلَ هذا؟, and ما is exclusive to beings without intellects, for example:ما فعلتَ؟ .

  9. متیَ and أیّان are used in asking about time, but أیّان only asks about the future, for example: أیّان تَرجع؟.

  10. أین is an adverbian noun which asks about a place that something is and if the preposition مِن is added to it, it asks about a place where something is from, for example:مِن أینَ قَدِمتَ؟ .

  11. کم means how many, for example:کم دِرهماً عِندکَ؟ .

  12. أيّ is prefixed to indefinate words, for example: أيّ کتابٍ عِندکَ؟, or definite words, for example: أيّ الکتابَینِ عِندک؟ .