Arabic: An Essential Grammar

(a) َم ْن؟ man, ‘who? whom? whose?’

This pronoun may occur as subject, object or in any other nominal

function in the sentence. In a nominal sentence َم ْن is placed before

or after a pronominal subject. In an

id

̇

a ̄fah construction it is, of

course, placed after the first noun, e.g.

Note: Like the following interrogative pronoun َما؟ ma ̄ ‘what?’, َم ْن

is indeclinable, i.e. it has the same form for all genders, numbers and

cases.

(b) When the prefixed preposition ِلـ... precedes َم ْن, it has the

meaning ‘whose?’, ‘for/to whom?’, e.g.

ِلـ َم ِن ْل َب ْي ُت li-mani l-baytu? Whose house is it? (lit. For whom is the

house?)

Note: In the above sentence َم ْن gets the kasrah and becomes َم ِن, because

it is followed by hamzatu al-was

̇

li (was

̇

lah).

(c) َما؟ ma ̄ ‘what?’ may be preceded by the preposition ِلـ and is then

written as ِل َم؟ )...ـ َما+ِلـ..), meaning ‘why? for what?’.

(d) The above-mentioned pronoun has a longer synonym َما َذا؟

ma ̄d

̄

a ̄ ‘what?’. It can also be preceded by the bound preposition

...لـ ِ, giving: ِلـ َما َذا؟^ )...ـ َما َذا+ِلـ..), which means ‘why? for

what?’.

(e) يٌّ َأ

ayyun, masc., ي ٌةََّأ ayyatun, fem., are adjectival interrogative

pronouns meaning ‘which...?, what...?’. They precede the noun

they qualify, which is always in the indefinite singular genitive,

e.g.

Masc: ل ٍم؟ّي ُم َعَُّ َأ

ayyu mu



allimin, which/what teacher?

Fem: ل َم ٍة؟ّي ُة ُم َعَََّأ ayyatu mu



allimatin, which/what teacher?

Note: ٌيّ َأ and ي ٌةََّأ can also be used as (adjectival) indefinite pronouns in

the meaning ‘any’, e.g.

ُه َو َم ْن؟ huwa man? َم ْن ُه َو؟ man huwa? َب ْي ُت َم ْن؟ baytu man?

Who is he? Who is he? whose house?

170

Interroga-

tive

particles

and

pronouns,

vocative

particles