أدوات الاستفهام في العربية
Arabic · Key Stage 3 · The School
The question words
The core set is small and worth memorising early: man (who), ma or madha (what), ayna (where), mata (when), kayfa (how), limadha (why), and kam (how many). Each goes at the START of the sentence, and the rest of the sentence usually keeps its normal order behind it.
Yes/no questions
To turn a statement into a yes/no question, Arabic puts a question particle at the front — hal, or the shorter a-. Nothing else moves, which is simpler than English, where the word order changes. The answer is naam for yes and la for no, usually followed by the full sentence rather than the bare word.
Answering fully
In classroom Arabic the expected answer repeats the sentence rather than giving one word. Asked ayna al-kitab — where is the book — the answer is al-kitabu ala al-maktab, not just a place name. It feels laborious and is the fastest way to build fluency, because it makes you produce whole structures rather than fragments.
Statement: ذَهَبَ أَحْمَدُ إِلَى المَدْرَسةِ أَمْسِ. مَن ذَهَبَ؟ Who went — Ahmad. أَيْنَ ذَهَبَ؟ Where — to school. مَتَى؟ When — yesterday. كَيْفَ؟ How. لِماذا؟ Why. And for yes or no: هَلْ ذَهَبَ أَحْمَدُ إِلَى المَدْرَسة؟ Notice that for the yes/no question NOTHING moved — a particle went on the front and the sentence stayed as it was.