أيّ asks a hearer to choose one member of a known or relevant set: “which book?”, “which route?”, “which of you?” Unlike indeclinable من and ماذا, interrogative أيّ visibly carries case when fully vocalized. Its ending comes from the grammatical role of the whole choice phrase—not from its position at the beginning of the question.
The central pattern is an iḍāfa, or construct phrase. أيّ is the first term and the noun or attached pronoun identifying the set is its genitive complement: أيُّ كتابٍ، أيَّ خطةٍ، بأيِّ طريقٍ، أيُّكم. Ordinary unvocalized writing hides the short case vowel, but careful formal speech and grammatical analysis preserve the three-way contrast.
If the endings are new, Case and Word Order explains why movement does not change a phrase’s grammatical role.
One shape for masculine and feminine choices
Interrogative أيّ itself does not switch between masculine and feminine forms. The following noun names the set and naturally has its own gender and number.
أي كتاب تريد؟
ʾayya kitābin turīdu?
Which book do you want? (Masculine complement; the whole phrase is the object.)
أي مجلة تريدين؟
ʾayya majallatin turīdīna?
Which magazine do you want? (Feminine complement; addressed to one woman.)
أي حافلة تذهب إلى الجامعة؟
ʾayyu ḥāfilatin tadhhabu ʾilā l-jāmiʿa(h)?
Which bus goes to the university? (The choice phrase is the subject.)
The contrast كتاب / مجلة / حافلة affects agreement elsewhere, but أيّ remains أيّ. The forms أيها and أيتها seen in vocatives such as “O students” belong to a different construction; do not use أيتها merely because the questioned noun is feminine.
Case follows syntactic role
The whole أيّ + noun phrase can be subject, object, or complement of a preposition. Since أيّ is the first term of an iḍāfa, it receives the case required by that external role. The following noun is always genitive as the second term.
| Role of whole phrase | Vocalized pattern | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Subject: nominative | أَيُّ طَالِبٍ | which student...? |
| Direct object: accusative | أَيَّ مَقَالٍ | which article...? |
| After a preposition: genitive | فِي أَيِّ قَاعَةٍ | in which hall...? |
أي طالب فاز بالجائزة؟
ʾayyu ṭālibin fāza bi-l-jāʾiza(h)?
Which student won the prize? (Nominative أيُّ as subject.)
أي اقتراح قبلت اللجنة؟
ʾayya qtirāḥin qabilati l-lajnatu?
Which proposal did the committee accept? (Accusative أيَّ as object.)
في أي فندق أقمتم؟
fī ʾayyi funduqin ʾaqamtum?
In which hotel did you stay? (Genitive أيِّ after في.)
These examples deliberately pronounce case because case is the topic. In ordinary pausal speech, some final endings elsewhere may disappear; the internal ending on أيّ can remain audible because another word follows it. The complement’s genitive ـٍ is also shown in careful connected reading.
The construct phrase has no definite article on أيّ
Because أيّ is the first term of an iḍāfa, it does not take الـ or tanwīn. The following noun identifies the domain of choice. With an open set, it is commonly an indefinite genitive noun: أيُّ يومٍ “which day?” With an explicitly definite set, Arabic often uses أيّ + demonstrative/genitive phrase: أيُّ هذه الأيام “which of these days?”
أي يوم يناسبك هذا الأسبوع؟
ʾayyu yawmin yunāsibuka hādhā l-ʾusbūʿ?
Which day suits you this week? (Addressed to one man.)
أي هذه الصور التقطت بنفسك؟
ʾayya hādhihi ṣ-ṣuwari ltaqaṭta bi-nafsika?
Which of these pictures did you take yourself?
أي هاتين الشقتين اخترت؟
ʾayya hātayni sh-shaqqatayni khtarta?
Which of these two apartments did you choose?
The last two constructions are denser (formal) choices. At A2, it is enough to recognize that هذه الصور or هاتين الشقتين names a closed set after أيّ. There is no form الأيّ.
Attached pronouns mean “which of us/you/them?”
A possessive-like suffix can serve as the genitive complement of أيّ. Its meaning is partitive: it identifies the group from which one or more members must be selected.
أيكم يتحدث الإسبانية؟
ʾayyukum yataḥaddathu l-ʾisbāniyya(h)?
Which of you speaks Spanish? (Nominative subject.)
بأيهم اتصلت المديرة؟
bi-ʾayyihimi ttaṣalati l-mudīra(h)?
Which of them did the director contact? (Genitive after the verb’s required بـ.)
أيا منا سترشح الشركة؟
ʾayyan minnā saturashshiḥu sh-sharika(h)?
Which one of us will the company nominate? (Accusative object; expanded partitive with من.)
The verb اتصل بـ requires بـ, so بأيّهم اتصلت المديرة؟ fronts the preposition with its interrogative complement. The same transparent pattern works with an overt noun:
بأي شخص اتصلت بعد الحادث؟
bi-ʾayyi shakhṣini ttaṣalta baʿda l-ḥādith?
Which person did you contact after the accident?
Arabic keeps clause order; English adds auxiliaries
Form the Arabic statement, replace the desired constituent with an inflected أيّ phrase, and normally move that phrase to the left edge. Do not add do/did and do not invert a subject with an auxiliary.
راجعت سلمى ثلاثة ملفات. أي ملف راجعت سلمى؟
rājaʿat salmā thalāthata malaffāt. ʾayya malaffin rājaʿat salmā?
Salma reviewed three files. Which file did Salma review?
ستقدمين العرض يوم الثلاثاء. أي عرض ستقدمين؟
satuqaddimīna l-ʿarḍa yawma th-thulāthāʾ. ʾayya ʿarḍin satuqaddimīna?
You will give the presentation on Tuesday. Which presentation will you give? (Addressed to one woman.)
The imperfect or future verb already agrees with its subject. أيّ does not erase gender marking on the verb, even though أيّ itself is gender-neutral.
Answers identify a member of the set
أي طريق سلكت؟ سلكت الطريق الساحلي.
ʾayya ṭarīqin salakta? salaktu ṭ-ṭarīqa s-sāḥiliyy.
Which road did you take? I took the coastal road.
في أي طابق يقع مكتبها؟ في الطابق الرابع.
fī ʾayyi ṭābiqin yaqaʿu maktabuhā? fī ṭ-ṭābiqi r-rābiʿ.
On which floor is her office? On the fourth floor.
The answer keeps the preposition and supplies the selected item. نعم alone cannot answer a “which?” question.
Common Mistakes
Leaving أيّ uninflected in careful formal Arabic
❌ في أي كتاب وجدت الاقتباس؟
fī ʾayyu kitābin wajadta l-iqtibās?
Incorrect reading—في requires genitive أَيِّ, not nominative أَيُّ.
✅ في أي فصل وجدت هذا التعريف؟
fī ʾayyi faṣlin wajadta hādhā t-taʿrīf?
In which chapter did you find this definition?
Adding the definite article to أيّ
❌ الأي حافلة تصل أولا؟
Incorrect—أيّ is the first term of a construct phrase and does not take الـ.
✅ أي قطار يصل قبل الظهر؟
ʾayyu qiṭārin yaṣilu qabla ẓ-ẓuhr?
Which train arrives before noon?
Copying English do-support or inversion
❌ أي تقرير فعلت المديرة تراجع؟
Incorrect—Arabic needs neither a dummy فعل nor English auxiliary order.
✅ أي تقرير راجعت المديرة صباحا؟
ʾayya taqrīrin rājaʿati l-mudīratu ṣabāḥan?
Which report did the director review this morning?
Stranding the preposition
❌ أي شركة تعمل مع؟
Incorrect in neutral formal MSA—the preposition must accompany the choice phrase.
✅ مع أي شركة وقعت الوزارة العقد؟
maʿa ʾayyi sharikatin waqqaʿati l-wizāratu l-ʿaqd?
With which company did the ministry sign the contract?
Using a Latin question mark
❌ أي لون تفضل?
Incorrect typography—Arabic uses ؟.
✅ أي لون يناسب الغرفة؟
ʾayyu lawnin yunāsibu l-ghurfa(h)?
Which color suits the room?
Key Takeaways
- أيّ is gender-neutral but case-inflected.
- It heads an iḍāfa: أيّ takes the phrase’s external case, and its following complement is genitive.
- Use أَيُّ for a subject, أَيَّ for an object, and أَيِّ after a preposition.
- Attached pronouns create partitive forms such as أيكم “which of you?”
- Preserve ordinary Arabic tense, agreement, and clause order; never add English do-support.
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