Questions
What does the speaker want to find out?
المعنى
A question asks for missing information or checks whether something is true. It can ask about a person, place, reason, or other detail, or offer alternatives to choose from. Languages mark questions with word order, question words, small markers, or intonation, and some have no special question word order. Requests and commands ask someone to act rather than supply information, although a question can also serve as a polite request.
طريقة التعرّف عليه
Check whether the speaker is asking for information or confirmation, then look for any question word, changed order, small marker, or spoken melody that signals it.
في اللغة الأم
Standard Arabic commonly marks yes/no questions with هل or the attached أَ. Question words such as أين and متى normally introduce information questions, and no auxiliary verb is added merely to make a question. Direct questions offering named alternatives commonly use أَ ... أم.
هل انتهيتَ من العملِ؟ (Hal intahayta min al-ʿamal?)
أين مفاتيحي؟ (Ayna mafātīḥī?)
This question needs no present-tense linking verb.
أَتسافرُ اليومَ أم غدًا؟ (A-tusāfiru al-yawma am ghadan?)
أَ and أم mark a direct choice between two alternatives.
في اللغة قيد التعلم
In most direct questions, English puts an auxiliary verb, a helper such as can or do, before the subject. If the statement has no helper, most verbs need do, does, or did, but be forms questions without adding do. A question word or the phrase containing it usually comes first; when who or what is itself the subject, there is normally no added do or change in order.
Do you work on Saturdays?
Do goes before you to turn the statement into a question.
Who called you?
Who is the subject, so no do is added.
Who did you call?
Who asks about the person called; did comes before you, and call has no past ending.
Learners whose language normally asks questions through intonation or word order alone may leave out do, does, or did. Learners whose language builds questions about the subject and object in the same way may miss the difference between Who called you? and Who did you call?