Particle Interrogative

Summary

Interrogative particles indicate that a sentence is a question. The interrogative particles מִי and מָה can also function as interrogative pronouns (“who?” and “what?”) or indefinite pronouns (“whoever” and “whatever”).

Article

In general, interrogative particles nearly always appear at the beginning of a clause to indicate that the clause is a question and not a statement. However, interrogative particles can occur in the middle of a sentence to function as indefinite pronouns instead. As in many languages, in Biblical Aramaic a question can be asked rhetorically as a way of making a strong statement. As an example, a person might ask “How can that be?” as a way of expressing a strong sense of disbelief in something that has just been said.

Examples

מִי

This is the standard personal interrogative particle and can be translated as “who?”. This particle can also function either as an interrogative pronoun when used at the beginning of a verbal clause, or as an indefinite pronoun (“whoever”) when used in the middle of a clause or sentence.

מָה

This is the standard impersonal interrogative particle and can be translated as “what?”. This particle can also function as either an interrogative pronoun when used at the beginning of a verbal clause, or an indefinite pronoun (“whatever”) when used in the middle of a clause or sentence.