How to say What is he doing in Arabic?

Today we are going to learn daily expression in Arabic, asking someone what are you doing, what is he doing, what is she doing in Arabic.

In this lesson, beside understanding the expressions, you can enrich your Arabic vocabulary because I'll list the verbs with the translation.

In addition to this, you can learn sentence structure and a word by word translation, so you will obtain complete understanding after reading this material lesson.

OK, enjoy the material. We will start from the what is he doing? in Arabic.

How to express what is he doing in Arabic? 

In this section, I'll show you the expression in Arabic with the examples answering this kind of questions.

What is he doing? , you can state it  "مَاذَا يَفْعَلُ؟"

The example answer :  هُوَ  يَدْرُسُ    (He is studying) 

A word by word translation

Observe the translation in the picture below.

Let's modify the sentence

1st modification : add the fa'il (the doer)

You've learn what is he doing statement in Arabic, now we try to modify the sentence. 

How to ask "What is Ahmad doing?" 

You can simply add the word Ahmad after verb.

Therefore What is Ahmad doing? in Arabic is "مَاذَا  يَفْعَلُ  أَحْمَدُ؟"

Let's study one more example. How to ask "What is the student doing?" 

By doing the same step like above, you can simply state "مَاذَا  يَفْعَلُ  الطَّالِبُ؟"

OK, let's start to do some exercise.

Translate the following sentence into Arabic.

1. What is the teacher doing?

2. What is the boy doing?

3. What is the doctor doing?

Answer

1. What is the teacher doing? => مَاذَا  يَفْعَلُ  المُدَرِّسُ؟

2. What is the boy doing? => مَاذَا  يَفْعَلُ  الوَلَدُ؟

3. What is the doctor doing? => مَاذَا  يَفْعَلُ  الطَّبِيْبُ؟

2nd modification : modify the fa'il (the doer)

If we change the doer, the consequence is we have to change the verb also. 

Why? Because there is an agreement between verb (fi'l) and the doer (fa'il).

Suppose you ask "What is she doing?". In this case, the doer is "she" or هِيَ , then you must change the verb to تَفْعَلُ  instead of يَفْعَلُ  

So, what is she doing? in Arabic is => مَاذَا تَفْعَلُ ؟

We will learn more the verb conjugation in sarf lesson, in shaa Allah. 

For this time, just focus memorizing the table below.

There are four types of question based on the table above, they are:

a. What is he doing?

he = هُوَ = third person, singular, masculin.

You use the word يَفْعَلُ , so "what is he doing?" is  مَاذَا  يَفْعَلُ؟

b. What is she doing?

 she = هِيَ = third person, singular, feminine.

You use the word  تَفْعَلُ , so "what is she doing?" is  مَاذَا  تَفْعَلُ ؟

c. What are you doing?

you = أَنْتَ = second person, singular, masculine.

You use the word تَفْعَلُ, so "what are you doing?" is  مَاذَا  تَفْعَلُ ؟

d. What are you doing?

you = أَنْتِ  = second person, singular, feminine.

You use the word تَفْعَلِيْنَ ,  so "what are you doing?" is  مَاذَا  تَفْعَلِيْنَ ؟

Question and Answer English and Arabic