The harfNon-Governing Particlescore term
In one line
A question noun: مَنْ “who?”, مَا “what?”, مَتَى “when?”, أَيْنَ “where?”, كَيْفَ “how?”.
Classical definition
اسْمُ الاسْتِفْهَامِ مَا يُطْلَبُ بِهِ تَعْيِينُ شَيْءٍ، كَمَنْ وَمَا وَمَتَى وَأَيْنَ وَكَيْفَ وَكَمْ.
“The interrogative noun is that by which the identification of something is sought — like مَنْ, مَا, مَتَى, أَيْنَ, كَيْفَ and كَمْ.”
Key words in the Arabic
يُطْلَبُ بِهِby it is sought
تَعْيِينpinning down, identifying
Understand it
Question nouns stand at the front of their sentence — Arabic does not rearrange word order to ask; it simply opens with the question word. They are mabni, yet each still fills an i'rab slot in its own sentence (كَيْفَ typically in the place of a hal, أَيْنَ of a zarf). Watch for double duty: the same مَنْ and مَا also serve as relative and conditional nouns — the job depends on the sentence, not the shape.
How to spot it
Recognition test
A question word opening the sentence, with a question meaning carrying through to the end.
In the Qur'an
مَا ٱلْقَارِعَةُ
Al-Qari'ah 101:2 — “What is the (Day) of Noise and Clamour?”
مَا asks the question, and unlike a harf istifham it is an ism in its own right — it holds a place in the sentence. Here it is the
mubtada, with ٱلْقَارِعَةُ as its
khabar.
Don't confuse it with
هَلْ and the hamza also ask questions, but they are particles (huruf), not nouns — they fill no i'rab slot, while the question nouns do.
Related terms
Common questions
What makes a question word a noun rather than a particle?
That it holds a place in the sentence. A question particle only turns the sentence into a question and takes no role. A question noun is asking about something that has a role — a doer, an object, a time — and it occupies that role itself.
Next in the guideحَرْف جَوَابAnswer particle (jawab) →
