Arabic 6 — Adawāt al-istifhām — the eleven interrogatives أَدَواتُ الاسْتِفْهام

1 · What أَداة means #

Look at the word itself first. أَداة (adāh) = a tool / instrument; its plural is أَدَوات (adawāt). So أَدَواتُ الاسْتِفْهام (adawātu-l-istifhām) = "the tools of questioning" — the words with which a question is built. اِسْتِفْهام (istifhām) translates as "questioning / asking."

2 · Two classes of interrogative — حُرُوف and أَسْماء #

You know the three classes of word in Arabic: اِسْم (ism, noun), فِعْل (fiʿl, verb) and حَرْف (ḥarf, particle). The interrogatives split across two of those:

Take the two groups together and you call the whole set أَدَواتُ الاسْتِفْهام — eleven words. In the textbook they are printed in red so you can see them at a glance; read them straight through.

3 · The rule that covers all eleven: the interrogative comes FIRST #

Run your eye down every example in the unit along one line and you will see it: the question word begins the sentence. It never comes in the middle, and never at the end. In Tamil we ask the other way round — "this name what?" — with the question word landing last. Arabic does not do that. To ask "who is this?" you must say مَنْ هذا؟ (man hādhā?), never hādhā man?

4 · The eleven, one at a time #

1 · هَلْ — the yes/no particle #

To ask "is it so, or not?" there are exactly two words: هَلْ and the هَمْزة. Both stand at the start of the sentence and both may come before a verb or before a noun, with the same meaning:

2 · الهَمْزة — the same question, and the only one allowed with a negative #

The هَمْزة (the أ prefixed to the sentence) does everything هَلْ does:

Here is the whole difference between the two. هَلْ comes only with an affirmative sentence. The hamzah comes with affirmative and negative alike. So you cannot say hal lam taʾkul — لَمْ is a negative, and هَلْ is barred from it. With a negative, only the hamzah:

You recite that very pattern in the Qur'an:

3 · أَيّ — "which one?", and it is always a مُضاف #

When many things are in front of you and you must single one out, that is أَيّ — English "which." Unlike هَلْ and the hamzah it carries a rule of its own: أَيّ is always a مُضاف (muḍāf), and the noun after it is its مُضافٌ إِلَيْهِ (muḍāf ilayh) — so that noun is always majrūr (kasrah): أَيُّ كِتابٍ, أَيُّ طَعامٍ. The iʿrāb therefore shows on أَيّ itself, which appears in three shapes according to its own role in the sentence:

• أَيَّ كِتابٍ تُرِيدُ؟ — ayya kitābin turīd? — answered كِتابَ القَواعِدِ (kitāba-l-qawāʿid, "the grammar book").
• In أَيُّ رَجُلٍ جاءَ؟ the verb is جاءَ and أَيُّ رَجُلٍ is the fāʿil, so ayy is marfūʿ.
• A common objection, and the answer: "shouldn't it be rajulun, not rajulin?" — No. It is رَجُلٍ, because it is the مُضافٌ إِلَيْهِ of ayy, and a مُضافٌ إِلَيْهِ always carries kasrah — that never changes. Likewise أَيَّ طَعامٍ and أَيِّ بَيْتٍ.

4 · كَمْ — asking a number, in three shapes #

كَمْ (kam) asks "how many?" What follows it is not a muḍāf ilayh construction like ayy's: after kam comes a singular noun in naṣb (fatḥah tanwīn — it is the tamyīz, the specifier), never a plural.

In Tamil we ask with a plural ("how many children"); Arabic keeps the noun singular: كَمْ قَلَماً، كَمْ كِتاباً، كَمْ رَجُلاً، كَمْ بَيْتاً، كَمْ مَسْجِداً — and you must never say kam aqlāman.

The one exception — clock time. There is exactly one place where the word after kam takes الـ, and that is asking the time:

Say كَمْ ساعَةً (kam sāʿatan) on the pattern of kam ṭiflan and you have asked something else — "how many hours." And you cannot ask the time with ما السّاعةُ؟ — ask it that way and people will laugh at you.

The third shape — price, kam joined to the preposition بِـ:

So kam works three ways: (1) كَمْ طِفْلاً — how many; (2) كَمِ السّاعَةُ — what time; (3) بِكَمْ — how much.

5 · أَيْنَ — asking about a place #

أَيْنَ (ayna) asks where, and the answer must carry the preposition فِي naming the place:

Unlike kam, which had three shapes including one joined to بِـ, أَيْنَ comes only as أَيْنَ — no particle ever attaches to it. Also: أَيْنَ تَسْكُنُ؟ (ayna taskun?) — "Where do you live?"

6 · مَتَى — asking about time #

مَتَى (matā) asks when. Like ayna it takes no attached preposition, and it may come before a verb or before a noun:

7 · كَيْفَ — asking about state or manner #

كَيْفَ (kayfa) = "how." No preposition joins it either, and a noun or a verb may follow:

Past or present, it works for all. So أَيْنَ، مَتَى، كَيْفَ are three of a kind — place, time, manner — and after all three either a noun or a verb may come.

8 · مَنْ — for persons only #

مَنْ (man) asks about the rational / human (ʿāqil). English draws no such distinction; Arabic does. مَنْ is for persons only:

(هذا is an اِسْمُ إِشارة — a demonstrative — and does not change form here.)

9 · ما — for non-persons, before a NOUN #

ما (mā) covers everything that is not a person, and it comes only before a noun:

10 · ماذا — for non-persons, before a VERB #

This is the split to fix in memory. Put ما in front of a verb and it stops being a question at all — it becomes a negation: ما فَعَلْتَ = "you did not do," ما حَصَلَ = "it did not happen." So to ask a question before a verb you must add the extra ذا:

ما and ماذا carry the same meaning; the rule is only about what follows — ما before a noun, ماذا before a verb.

11 · لِماذا — asking a reason #

لِـ (li-) is a حَرْف جَرّ meaning "for," and it marks a reason. Join it to ماذا and you get لِماذا — "for what? / why?" It may come before a verb or before a noun:

With that, all eleven أَدَواتُ الاسْتِفْهام have been covered, and the construction each one takes.

5 · Exercise 1 — eleven sentences, choose the right interrogative #

The exercise prints the أدوات above and then gives eleven sentences, each with the interrogative blanked out. The sentences below follow the class's item-by-item reading; read the exact wording from the textbook.

Two teaching points that came out of these items:

غابَ — the verb behind غِبْتَ #

• غابَ (ghāba) = "he was hidden / he was absent." From the same root comes الغَيْب (al-ghayb, the unseen) — الإِيمانُ بِالغَيْبِ is believing in what is hidden from the senses. Used of absence: غابَ عَنِ الدَّرْسِ = "he was absent from the lesson"; غِبْتَ = "you were absent."
• For that first item you could of course build مَنْ غابَ؟ ("who was absent?") as a sentence in its own right — but with غِبْتَ in the blank's sentence, only لِماذا fits.

مَعَكَ vs عِنْدَكَ — a fine distinction #

• كَمْ رِيالاً مَعَكَ؟ asks how much you have on you right now — in your hand, in your pocket.
• كَمْ رِيالاً عِنْدَكَ؟ asks what you possess — wallet level versus bank level, so to speak.
• Likewise كَمْ بَيْتاً عِنْدَكَ؟ ("how many houses do you own?") and كَمْ قَلَماً مَعَكَ؟ ("how many pens have you got with you?").
• On the travel item, both كَيْفَ and مَتَى would fit the sentence.

6 · Exercise 2 — ماذا vs مَا الَّذِي #

A simple exercise on the أسماء. Two ways of asking the very same thing:

Both carry the same meaning. Note which interrogative each takes: with الَّذِي it is ما, not ماذا — because a noun follows, namely the relative الذي. That is §4's rule doing its work.

الَّذِي (alladhī) = "that which / the one which" — an اِسْم مَوْصُول (ism mawṣūl, relative noun). It is the same الذي as in the oath of the ḥadīth:

7 · Exercise 3 — the athar of ʿAbdullāh ibn az-Zubayr #

Here you must frame a question and identify the parts. The passage below follows the class's line-by-line reading; read the exact wording from the textbook.

The passage: when the children saw ʿUmar raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu they all fled — except ʿAbdullāh ibn az-Zubayr. So ʿUmar asked him:

What the task asks you to find in it:

1. a فِعْل (verb) with its فاعِل — specifically a verb whose fāʿil is a ضَمِير مُسْتَتِر (ḍamīr mustatir, a concealed pronoun);
2. the جُمْلة اسْتِفْهامِيّة (jumlah istifhāmiyyah, the interrogative sentence) in the passage — which is لِماذا لَمْ تَفِرَّ مَعَ أَصْحابِكَ؟

Two more question-frames to build:

These exercises are easy — practise them a great deal, and check yourself.