Arabic Nouns of Interrogation
Interrogative Pronouns
We have covered yes/no questions, and seen that they were formed by means of interrogative particles. The rest of the words used in interrogation are all pronouns (nouns in Arabic grammar). They are used to form questions about such details as what, who, when, where, etc.
| Nouns of Interrogation أَسْمَاْءُ الاِسْتِفْهَاْمِ | ||
| What | maa | مَاْ |
| Who | man | مَنْ |
| When | mataa | مَتَىْ |
| ‘ayyaan(a) | أَيَّاْنَ | |
| Where | ‘ayn(a) | أَيْنَ |
| How | kayf(a) | كَيْفَ |
| How many | kam | كَمْ |
| How much | ||
| How | ‘annaa | أَنَّىْ |
| When | ||
| Where | ||
| Which (of) | ‘ayy(u) | أَيُّ |
Except for ‘ayy(u), all of the interrogative nouns are “built” words, which means that they do not show case inflection. They also do not change to suit different genders or numbers.
They are used in a similar way to the interrogative particles.