عندك كام كتاب؟

A common pronunciation is:

ʿandak kām kitāb?

A rough English-friendly version is:

an-dak kaam ki-taab?

A few notes:

• ع in عندك is the letter ʿayn, which does not exist in English. Beginners often just approximate it at first.
• كام has a long aa sound.
• كتاب also has a long aa in the second syllable.

If you are speaking to a woman, many speakers pronounce عندك more like ʿandik.

عندك literally means something like at you.

It is made of:

• عند = at / with / in someone’s possession
• -ك = you

So instead of saying you have, Arabic often expresses possession as there is ... at you or ... is with you.

That is why عندك كام كتاب؟ literally feels like:

At you, how many books?

but naturally means:

How many books do you have?

Because Arabic does not use the English helper verb do the way English does.

In English, you say:

How many books do you have?

But in Egyptian Arabic, you can ask the question directly without adding a word like do:

عندك كام كتاب؟

So this is completely normal and complete as it is.

كام means how many in Egyptian Arabic.

It is used to ask about a number of countable things:

• كام كتاب؟ = How many books?
• كام يوم؟ = How many days?
• كام واحد؟ = How many people? / How many persons?

It is one of the most common question words in spoken Egyptian Arabic.

This is a very common learner question.

In Egyptian Arabic, after كام, the noun is often used in the singular form:

• كام كتاب؟ = How many books?
• كام قلم؟ = How many pens?

So even though the meaning is plural in English, the Arabic noun after كام is commonly singular in everyday Egyptian speech.

That is why كام كتاب is the natural phrase here, not كام كتب.

Yes. -ك is the attached pronoun meaning you, and it changes in speech depending on the person.

For singular:

• to a man: عندك = ʿandak
• to a woman: عندك in writing, often pronounced ʿandik

For plural:

• عندكو = ʿanduku / ʿandكو = you all have

So you could say:

• عندك كام كتاب؟ to one man
• عندك كام كتاب؟ to one woman, usually pronounced differently
• عندكو كام كتاب؟ to more than one person

This exact phrasing is very natural in Egyptian Arabic.

In Modern Standard Arabic, you would more likely see something like:

كم كتابًا عندك؟

or

عندك كم كتابًا؟

A learner should know that:

• كام is a spoken Egyptian form
• كم is the Standard Arabic form

So عندك كام كتاب؟ sounds colloquial and Egyptian, not formal written Arabic.

Yes, you can.

Both of these are understandable and natural:

• عندك كام كتاب؟
• كام كتاب عندك؟

The first one often feels like:

Do you have how many books? / How many books do you have?

The second starts with the number question itself:

How many books do you have?

The difference is mainly one of word order and emphasis, not basic meaning.

Yes, in many situations you can say:

معاك كام كتاب؟

This literally means something like with you, how many books?

But there can be a small nuance:

• عندك often suggests you have / you own / you possess
• معاك often suggests you have with you right now

In real conversation, though, the line is not always strict, and both may be used in everyday speech depending on context.

Yes, very close.

In Egyptian Arabic, كتاب is commonly pronounced kitāb.

So in this sentence:

عندك كام كتاب؟ = ʿandak kām kitāb?

This word is a very common singular noun meaning book.

Its plural is كتب = kutub in Standard Arabic, though in Egyptian speech you may hear plural patterns pronounced a bit differently depending on context and speaker.

A very useful pattern is:

عند + pronoun + كام + singular noun

Meaning:

How many ... do you have?

Examples:

• عندي كام سؤال = I have how many questions
• عندك كام كتاب؟ = How many books do you have?
• عنده كام عربية؟ = How many cars does he have?
• عندها كام أخ؟ = How many brothers does she have?

This pattern is extremely useful in everyday Egyptian Arabic.