“How Many?” and “How Much?”

Lesson objective

In this lesson, you will learn how to use šнal with countable nouns, uncountable nouns, and prices.

The question word

How many / how much — šнal. The word after šнal can be connected with d or mn.

Uncountable nouns

An uncountable noun describes something that can be measured but not counted as separate items — for example tea, air, or time.

Structure: šнal + d + singular uncountable noun

šнal d l-wqt? — How much time?

Countable nouns

A countable noun has singular and plural forms and can be used with numbers — for example books or cats. Two structures are possible.

Asking about prices

When šнal asks about a price, it normally follows the preposition b, together forming bšнal.

bšнal had l-qamija? — How much is this shirt?
bšнal šritihum? — How much did you pay for them?

Activity timeline exercise

Write a timeline of your activities from last Sunday, using time expressions like f l-weekend, f ṣ-ṣbaн bkri, f l-3šiya, f l-lil, mn b3d, and l-нdd lli fat, together with verbs like tfrrj, t3šša, dar, safr, 3awn, tsnna, ṣam, ja, kbb, mša, dqq, tlaqa, xaf, wṣl, šaf, qra, duwš, tkllm, lbs, ṣifṭ.

f l-weekend t3ššit m3a ṣнabi f r-risṭora. — During the weekend, I had dinner with my friends in the restaurant.