Question forms أدوات الاستفهام

[Muslimah]

As Salam Alykom

To form a question u need to use one of the following words:

من

mann

who

ما / ماذا

ma / madha

what

كيف

kayfa

how

لماذا

lemadha

why

كم

مثل كم السعر

kumelse`ar

how much (price)

كم الوزن

kumel wazn

how much is the weight

كم الساعة

kum es-sa`ah

what is the time

how (but this how is usually used for quantities or hour): So kum is used in a wide range of areas.

متى

mata

when

[AbuMubarak]

متى تقول ما ام ماذا؟

[Muslimah]

As Salam Alykom Raafi,

U r really getting these lessons active, jazakum Allah khairan

we say:

ما هذا

what is this?

ma hadha?

ماذا حدث

What happened?

madha hadath?

These are the two example I can come up with now. Insh a Allah will think about more.

[AbuMubarak]

الحمدلله

but is there a rule or is it just usage and i will learn as i go?

[Muslimah]

OK akhi raafi here is a rule for ما و ماذا

so the agent of istifhaam...maa..is for asking clarification of nouns...like if you dont understand the clear meaning of a word...u ask using maa...e.g. maa al-kummathraa...waht's a kummathraa??...it means a pear (the fruit)..

it is also used when someone is sure of the existence of an object or action...but is not sure of exactly what it is..this is also when you couple it with ..haadha or dha or dhalika....well there u go....maadha is actually ...the same maa...coupled with 'dha' ....dha is a demonstrative pronoun (ism ishaara) just like haadha and dhalika...the difference is haadha is for near and dha...is irrespective and dhalika is for far...the irrespective one is usually left untranslated in this case. In english we don't have an irrespective one...they only have 'this' and that'.

maadha 'ala al-kurisiyyi...means 'what is on the chair'...but more specifically the litteral translation would be 'what is that on the chair...

so 'maadha' basically means the same as just maa...except that theres an added elemant of ishaarah (pointing or referring to something visible or known to the listener)...in maadha which is not in just 'maa'...the element is subtle and not usually translated.