ما سعر هذا القميص؟

A careful MSA pronunciation is:

mā siʿru hādhā al-qamīṣ?

A few useful notes:

• ما = mā
• سعر = siʿr or siʿru in full grammatical pronunciation
• هذا = hādhā
• القميص = al-qamīṣ

Sounds to notice:

• ع in سعر is a deep throat sound that does not exist in English.
• ق in القميص is usually pronounced as a deep q sound in MSA, not like English k.
• ص in قميص is an emphatic s.

In everyday careful speech, many speakers will not fully pronounce all case endings, so you may often hear something close to:

mā siʿr hādhā al-qamīṣ?

Here is the word-by-word breakdown:

• ما = what
• سعر = price
• هذا = this
• القميص = the shirt

So literally, the structure is:

What [is] the price of this shirt?

Arabic often leaves out the verb is in present-tense sentences like this.

In Arabic, present-tense equational sentences usually do not use a word for is/are.

So English says:

What is the price of this shirt?

But Arabic simply says:

What price this shirt?

This is completely normal in Arabic.
If you want past or future, then Arabic uses other structures, but for the present, the verb to be is usually omitted.

ما is very common when asking about the identity or nature of something, especially in short nominal sentences like this one.

So:

• ما سعر هذا القميص؟ = What is the price of this shirt?

By contrast, ماذا is especially common when followed by a verb:

• ماذا تريد؟ = What do you want?

So for this sentence, ما is the natural choice.

Because Arabic often expresses of by putting two nouns together in a structure called iḍāfa.

So:

• سعر هذا القميص = the price of this shirt

This is literally:

• price this shirt

English needs of, but Arabic usually does not in this kind of phrase.

This pattern is extremely common:

• باب البيت = the door of the house
• لون السيارة = the color of the car
• سعر هذا القميص = the price of this shirt

Because in an iḍāfa construction, the first noun usually does not take ال.

So Arabic says:

• سعر هذا القميص

not

• السعر هذا القميص

The first noun, سعر, becomes definite through its connection to the second part, هذا القميص.

That is a key rule of iḍāfa:

• first noun: no ال
• whole phrase can still be definite

For example:

• باب البيت = the door of the house
• not الباب البيت

Because قميص is a masculine singular noun.

In MSA:

• هذا = this for masculine singular
• هذه = this for feminine singular

So:

• هذا القميص = this shirt
• هذه السيارة = this car

Since قميص is masculine, هذا is the correct form.

In MSA, the demonstrative usually comes before the noun in simple phrases like this:

• هذا القميص = this shirt
• هذه البنت = this girl

So the order matches English here.

Learners sometimes get confused because in some dialects you may hear different patterns, but in standard Arabic, هذا القميص is the normal form.

Because the noun is definite: this shirt, not just a shirt.

In Arabic, a noun after هذا is normally definite, so it appears with ال:

• هذا القميص = this shirt
• هذا كتاب is not standard MSA in this kind of sentence

So ال is expected here.

In full formal Arabic, the sentence is:

ما سعرُ هذا القميصِ؟

The important endings are:

• سعرُ → nominative
• القميصِ → genitive, because it is the second part of the iḍāfa

About هذا:

• it is a demonstrative pronoun and does not show case the way regular nouns do in writing here

In normal spoken reading or conversation, many people pause and drop these endings, so you will often hear:

ما سعر هذا القميص؟

without fully pronouncing -u and -i.

Yes, ما سعر هذا القميص؟ is correct and natural in MSA.

You may also see or hear:

• كم سعر هذا القميص؟ = How much is the price of this shirt? / What is the price of this shirt?
• كم ثمن هذا القميص؟ = What is the price of this shirt?

All are good.
For learners, كم سعر هذا القميص؟ and كم ثمن هذا القميص؟ are also very common and useful.

Both can mean price.

Very roughly:

• سعر often means price in a general or listed sense
• ثمن also means price, and can sound a little more like cost or amount paid

In many everyday contexts, they overlap a lot.

So all of these are fine:

• ما سعر هذا القميص؟
• كم سعر هذا القميص؟
• كم ثمن هذا القميص؟

A learner can safely understand both سعر and ثمن as price in this kind of sentence.

Some simple answers are:

• سعره خمسون دولارًا. = Its price is fifty dollars.
• ثمنه خمسون دولارًا. = Its price is fifty dollars.
• هو بخمسين دولارًا. = It is for fifty dollars.

Useful point:

• سعره = its price
• ثمنه = its price

The -ه means his/its, so سعره literally means its price when talking about the shirt.

Yes. This sentence pattern is very productive.

You can say:

• ما سعر هذا الكتاب؟ = What is the price of this book?
• ما سعر هذه الحقيبة؟ = What is the price of this bag?
• ما سعر هذا الهاتف؟ = What is the price of this phone?

Just make sure the demonstrative matches the noun:

• هذا for masculine singular
• هذه for feminine singular

So:

• هذا القميص
• هذه الحقيبة

It is basically:

ما + [noun phrase in an iḍāfa construction]?

More specifically:

• ما = question word
• سعر هذا القميص = a noun phrase meaning the price of this shirt

So the pattern can be reused as:

• ما اسم هذا الرجل؟ = What is the name of this man?
• ما لون هذا البيت؟ = What is the color of this house?
• ما حجم هذه الغرفة؟ = What is the size of this room?

This is a very useful MSA pattern for asking about qualities or identifying information.