Breakdown of كم مرة أخذت الدواء؟
أخذakhadha
to take
كمkam
how many
مرةmarra
time (instance)
دواءdawâ'
medicine
Questions & Answers about كم مرة أخذت الدواء؟
Why is مرة singular when the English translation says "times" in the plural?
After the question word كم (kam, meaning "how many"), Arabic always uses a singular noun. So instead of literally saying "how many times", the Arabic phrasing is "how many time".
Does the verb أخذت mean "you took" for a man or a woman?
It can be either! Because Arabic is often written without short vowel marks, it is spelled the same way for both. You pronounce it akhadhta when speaking to a male, and akhadhti when speaking to a female.
How can I tell this sentence is in the past tense?
The verb أخذت (you took) is in the past tense. In Arabic, you create the past tense by adding suffixes (endings) to the base word. The base here is أخذ (he took), and the ت added to the end shows it was "you" who did the taking.
Does كم always mean "how many"?
The word كم (kam) can mean both "how many" and "how much" depending on the context. Because مرة (marra) refers to a countable instance or time, it means "how many" in this sentence.
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