In short

Arabic asks questions the easy way. You take a finished statement, put one small word in front of it, and you are done - nothing is inverted, no auxiliary appears, no word order changes. أَنْتَ طالِبٌ “you are a student” becomes هَلْ أَنْتَ طالِبٌ؟ “are you a student?” by adding three letters, and تَتَكَلَّمُ الْعَرَبِيَّةَ becomes هَلْ تَتَكَلَّمُ الْعَرَبِيَّةَ؟ the same way. English has to reach for do, does, did and then shuffle the subject; Arabic has nothing that corresponds to any of that.

The rest of the lesson is a vocabulary list with two pieces of grammar attached. The list is the question words - مَنْ، ما، ماذا، مَتى، أَيْنَ، كَيْفَ، لِماذا، كَمْ، أَيّ - and it is short enough to learn in an afternoon. The grammar is what trips everyone up: ما and ماذا are not interchangeable, and كَمْ and أَيّ each force a particular ending on the word after them. Get those three facts right and your questions will read as Arabic, not as translated English.

The rule

1. Two particles for yes-or-no questions. A yes-or-no question is a plain statement with a question particle glued to the front. The statement itself is untouched - same words, same order, same endings.

• هَلْ is the everyday particle. It is a separate word, written with a space after it, and it works in front of both sentence types you know: the verbal one (هَلْ تَتَكَلَّمُ الْعَرَبِيَّةَ؟) and the nominal one (هَلْ أَنْتَ طالِبٌ؟، هَلِ الْبَيْتُ كَبيرٌ؟). If you learn one thing from this lesson, learn هَلْ.
• أَ is a prefix - a single hamza written onto the first word of the sentence, with no space: أَتَعْرِفُ الْجَوابَ؟ “do you know the answer?” It is shorter, a little more formal, and it is what you will meet in headlines and in writing that wants to sound crisp.

Notice the small sound rule in هَلِ الْبَيْتُ كَبيرٌ؟: هَلْ ends in a sukūn and the hamza of الـ is not pronounced, so a helping kasra on the لام of هَلْ keeps the two consonants apart.

2. Where هَلْ cannot go, أَ can. The two particles are not fully interchangeable. هَلْ refuses to sit in front of a negated sentence, in front of إِنَّ, or in front of a conditional; أَ has no such restriction, and that is exactly why it survives in modern writing:

• لَسْتَ طالِباً “you are not a student” → أَلَسْتَ طالِباً؟ “aren’t you a student?”
• لَيْسَ هٰذا صَحيحاً “this is not correct” → أَلَيْسَ هٰذا صَحيحاً؟ “isn’t this correct?”
• The tag everyone uses: أَلَيْسَ كَذٰلِكَ؟ “isn’t that so?”

هَلْ لَسْتَ طالِباً؟ is not Arabic. The same block applies to إِنَّ-sentences, which you meet in lesson 44 - هَلْ إِنَّ… is impossible, and there too the particle is أَ. لَيْسَ itself is lesson 23; all you need here is that its predicate takes the accusative, which is why the example reads طالِباً and not طالِبٌ. One further note on أَ: on a word that itself starts with a hamza it gives you two in a row - أَأَنْتَ مِنْ مِصْرَ؟ - which is correct but awkward, and most writers prefer هَلْ أَنْتَ مِنْ مِصْرَ؟ there.

3. Three answers, not two. Arabic has an extra answer word that English lacks, and it exists precisely for negative questions:

• نَعَمْ - yes, confirming what was asked.
• لا - no.
• بَلى - “yes I am / yes it is”, contradicting a negative question.

The third one matters. Asked أَلَسْتَ طالِباً؟ “aren’t you a student?”, answering نَعَمْ agrees with the negative - it means “right, I am not”. To say “yes, I am” you must say بَلى، أَنا طالِبٌ. Note the spelling: بَلى ends in alif maqṣūra, never *بلا.

4. Information questions: the question word goes first, and nothing else moves. For a question with a question word, put the word - together with whatever it governs, see points 6 and 8 - at the front of the sentence, and leave the rest exactly as a statement would have it:

• تَسْكُنُ فِي الْقاهِرَةِ → أَيْنَ تَسْكُنُ؟
• يَبْدَأُ الدَّرْسُ فِي السّاعَةِ التّاسِعَةِ → مَتى يَبْدَأُ الدَّرْسُ؟

There is no inversion (تَسْكُنُ أَنْتَ أَيْنَ؟ is nothing), and there is no do-support. The verb keeps the person ending it already had, and a nominal sentence keeps its subject and predicate in place: مَنْ هٰذا الرَّجُلُ؟ كَيْفَ حالُكَ؟

Most of these words never change their ending, whatever their job in the sentence: مَنْ، ما، ماذا، مَتى، أَيْنَ، كَيْفَ، كَمْ are all fixed forms. The one exception is أَيّ, which declines like an ordinary noun - see point 8.

5. ما before a noun, ماذا before a verb. This is the central trap of the lesson, and it is where nearly every beginner’s first mistake lives. Both words mean “what”. They are not interchangeable:

• ما introduces a nominal sentence - it is followed by a noun, a pronoun or a demonstrative: ما اسْمُكَ؟ “what is your name?” ما هٰذا؟ “what is this?” ما رَأْيُكَ؟ “what is your opinion?” ما هُوَ الْفَرْقُ؟ “what is the difference?”
• ماذا introduces a verb: ماذا تُريدُ؟ “what do you want?” ماذا تَفْعَلُ؟ “what are you doing?” ماذا يَحْدُثُ؟ “what is happening?”

So ماذا اسْمُكَ؟ is wrong, and it is the commonest error English speakers make here, because English uses one word for both. The mechanical test: look at what comes next. Noun or pronoun → ما. Verb → ماذا. ما in front of a verb is not gibberish, but a modern reader will not take it as a question: ما تُريدُ reads either as a negation, “you do not want”, or as a relative phrase waiting for its sentence, “what you want” (lessons 39 and 68).

مَنْ has no such split. “Who” is مَنْ in front of anything: مَنْ أَنْتَ؟ (pronoun), مَنْ هٰذِهِ الْمَرْأَةُ؟ (noun phrase), مَنْ يَعْرِفُ الْجَوابَ؟ (verb).

6. A preposition travels with its question word. Arabic never leaves a preposition stranded at the end the way English does. The preposition and the question word move to the front together, as a unit:

• مِنْ أَيْنَ أَنْتَ؟ “where are you from?” - not أَيْنَ أَنْتَ مِنْ؟
• إِلى أَيْنَ تَذْهَبُ؟ “where are you going (to)?”
• مَعَ مَنْ تَسْكُنُ؟ “who do you live with?”
• لِمَنْ هٰذِهِ الْحَقيبَةُ؟ “whose bag is this?”
• فِي أَيِّ يَوْمٍ نَبْدَأُ؟ “on what day do we start?”

With ما there is a spelling twist: after a preposition, interrogative ما loses its alif and fuses with the preposition - عَنْ + ما = عَمَّ، فِي + ما = فيمَ، بِ + ما = بِمَ، لِ + ما = لِمَ. Hence عَمَّ تَبْحَثُ؟ “what are you looking for?” Those are the formal forms; modern writing very often keeps ماذا whole instead - بِماذا تَشْعُرُ؟، عَنْ ماذا تَبْحَثُ؟ - and that is perfectly acceptable. The one everybody uses without thinking is already fused: لِماذا is لِ + ماذا, “for what” → “why”, and its answer normally starts with لِأَنَّ (lesson 44).

7. كَمْ takes one singular indefinite accusative. “How many books do you have?” is كَمْ كِتاباً عِنْدَكَ؟ - singular كِتاب, indefinite, with an accusative tanwīn. Not a plural. Not كَمْ كُتُبٍ, not كَمْ كِتابٌ:

• كَمْ ساعَةً تَعْمَلُ؟ - how many hours do you work?
• كَمْ طالِباً فِي الصَّفِّ؟ - how many students are in the class?
• كَمْ مَرَّةً فِي الأُسْبوعِ؟ - how many times a week?
• كَمْ لُغَةً تَعْرِفُ؟ - how many languages do you know?

That noun has a name - تَمْييز, the accusative of specification - and the numbers 11-99 take the same thing (lesson 26; the full theory is lesson 61). For now treat it as a fixed shape: كَمْ + singular + ـاً. It sounds strange to an English ear (“how many book?”) and it is entirely regular. Three everyday questions skip the تَمْييز, because there كَمْ is itself the predicate - learn them whole: كَمْ عُمْرُكَ؟ “how old are you?”, كَمِ السّاعَةُ؟ “what time is it?”, بِكَمْ هٰذا؟ “how much is this?”

8. أَيّ heads an إِضافَة, so the noun after it is genitive. أَيّ “which” is not a particle but a noun, and it is bound to whatever follows it in a genitive construct (lesson 20). Two consequences:

• The following noun is مَجْرور and normally indefinite: أَيُّ كِتابٍ؟ “which book?” أَيُّ لَوْنٍ؟ “which colour?” Never أَيُّ الْكِتابُ. With a definite plural you get “which of the…”: أَيُّ الْكُتُبِ؟ “which of the books?”
• أَيّ itself declines according to its own job: أَيُّ / أَيَّ / أَيِّ, tabled below.

A feminine form أَيَّة exists (أَيَّةُ لُغَةٍ تَدْرُسُ؟), but the masculine أَيّ is correct with either gender, so you can recognize أَيَّة and simply use أَيّ throughout.

9. Punctuation, and the choice-question “or”. Every question ends in the Arabic question mark «؟», which faces the other way from the English one because the line runs right-to-left; never an ASCII ”?” in an Arabic sentence. In speech a statement said with rising intonation can serve as a question, as in English, but in writing use هَلْ or أَ - the particle is what warns the reader at the start that a question is coming. And in an either-or question the “or” is أَمْ, not أَوْ: أَتَشْرَبُ الشّايَ أَمِ الْقَهْوَةَ؟ “do you drink tea or coffee?” (the rest of coordination is lesson 25).

10. What this lesson leaves alone. مَنْ and ما are also relative pronouns - “the one who”, “that which” - which is lesson 39; the numbers whose تَمْييز behaves like كَمْ’s are lesson 26; and questions in the past tense wait for lesson 18.

Forms & patterns

The two yes-or-no particles:

The answers:

The question words. This is the whole working set at A1:

أَيّ takes the case its own job requires, while its noun stays genitive:

Examples

Common mistakes

• ماذا اسْمُكَ؟ -> ما اسْمُكَ؟ - a noun follows, so the word is ما. ماذا is reserved for a following verb. This is the error to fix first.
• ما تَفْعَلُ؟ (as a question) -> ماذا تَفْعَلُ؟ - in front of a verb, MSA asks with ماذا. Left as ما, the phrase reads as a negation, “you are not doing”, or as the relative “what you are doing” - either way, not a question.
• كَمْ كُتُبٍ عِنْدَكَ؟ / كَمْ كِتابٌ عِنْدَكَ؟ -> كَمْ كِتاباً عِنْدَكَ؟ - كَمْ never takes a plural, and the noun after it is accusative. The ـاً is the construction.
• أَيُّ الْكِتابُ تَقْرَأُ؟ -> أَيَّ كِتابٍ تَقْرَأُ؟ - أَيّ heads a construct, so its noun is indefinite and genitive; and أَيّ here is the object, so it is accusative itself.
• هَلْ لَسْتَ جائِعاً؟ -> أَلَسْتَ جائِعاً؟ - هَلْ cannot stand in front of a negation. The prefixed أَ is the particle that can.
• أَلَسْتَ طالِباً؟ - نَعَمْ، أَنا طالِبٌ. -> بَلى، أَنا طالِبٌ. - نَعَمْ after a negative question agrees with the negative. To contradict it you need بَلى.
• أَيْنَ أَنْتَ مِنْ؟ -> مِنْ أَيْنَ أَنْتَ؟ - Arabic does not strand prepositions at the end. The preposition moves to the front with its question word.
• تَتَكَلَّمُ أَنْتَ الْعَرَبِيَّةَ؟ -> هَلْ تَتَكَلَّمُ الْعَرَبِيَّةَ؟ - there is no inversion and no auxiliary. Add a particle at the front and change nothing else.
• كَيْفَ حالُكَ. -> كَيْفَ حالُكَ؟ - a question ends in «؟», the Arabic mark, never a full stop and never an ASCII question mark.

Tips

• Default to هَلْ. It fits in front of any plain affirmative statement of either type, which covers nearly everything you will want to ask. Add أَ to your active use for negative questions, where هَلْ is blocked.
• Memorize the pair ما اسْمُكَ؟ / ماذا تَفْعَلُ؟ as one unit. Every other case of “what” follows the pattern of one of those two, and the pair is faster to recall than the rule.
• Say كَمْ ساعَةً؟ كَمْ مَرَّةً؟ كَمْ كِتاباً؟ out loud until the -an ending arrives by itself. It is a rhythm, not a calculation.
• Watch the vowels: مَنْ “who” and مِنْ “from” are the same three letters unvocalized. Position usually settles it - مَنْ opens the question, مِنْ sits inside it.
• Collect preposition + question word as ready-made chunks: مِنْ أَيْنَ، إِلى أَيْنَ، مَعَ مَنْ، لِمَنْ، فِي أَيِّ. They behave as single words in practice.
• Ignore أَيَّة for now, and read عَمَّ، فيمَ، بِمَ without producing them - بِماذا and عَنْ ماذا serve perfectly well until they feel natural.
• Build an answer bank alongside the question words: نَعَمْ، لا، بَلى، طَبْعاً “of course”, لا أَعْرِفُ “I don’t know”. A question you cannot answer is half a conversation.