Topic 4 of 62

من / ما— Interrogatives

Two of the most basic question words split Arabic nouns along one line: whether they're عاقل (rational/human) or not. من asks "who" about a person (مَن هذا؟), while ما asks "what" about a thing (ما هذا؟). Both are مبني — indeclinable words whose ending never changes, even though they still hold a grammatical position (likeمبتدأ) in the sentence.