كانَ, "was": how Arabic puts a verbless sentence into the past, why the predicate takes the accusative (كانَ البَيْتُ كَبيراً), the forms كُنْتُ، كانَتْ، كانوا, the future سَيَكونُ, and the sisters لَيْسَ، أَصْبَحَ، ما زالَ.
I can say what people, places and things were like and what someone's job was, say what they became or still are, and say what I had or didn't have.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
كان الطالبُ مجتهداً.
The student was hardworking.
كانت المدينةُ جميلةً.
The city was beautiful.
كنتُ تعبانًا.
I was tired.
كنّا سعداءَ.
We were happy.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
In the present, Arabic needs no verb "to be": البَيْتُ كَبيرٌ - the house (is) big. To move that sentence into the past, put كانَ in front: كانَ البَيْتُ كَبيراً - the house was big. كانَ does one thing English "was" never does: it changes the ending of the predicate to the accusative. كَبيرٌ becomes كَبيراً; the subject, البَيْتُ, keeps its ending.
| كُنْتُ - I was | كُنّا - we were |
| كُنْتَ - you were (to a man) | كُنْتُمْ - you were (to several people) |
| كُنْتِ - you were (to a woman) | كانوا - they were |
| كانَ - he was, it was | كانَتْ - she was, it was |
These are the ordinary past-tense endings; only the middle of the word shifts. كانَ has a long ā (kāna), but before an ending that starts with a consonant it shortens to u: كُنْتُ (kuntu), كُنّا (kunnā).
In unvowelled everyday text you usually see only the alif of -an; the rest is heard when the sentence is read aloud.
Arab grammarians group several verbs with كانَ because they work the same way: after them, too, the predicate is accusative. This is what "كانَ وَأَخَواتُها", "kāna and her sisters", means.
| لَيْسَ - is not | لَيْسَ المَتْحَفُ مَفْتوحاً - the museum is not open |
| صارَ، أَصْبَحَ - became | أَصْبَحَتْ أُخْتي طَبيبَةً - my sister became a doctor |
| ما زالَ - is still | ما زالَ الجَوُّ حارّاً - it is still hot |
| ظَلَّ - kept on being | ظَلَّ السّوقُ مُزْدَحِماً - the market stayed crowded |
When كانَ has a subject and nothing else, it means "there was, existed", and the noun stays nominative. Arabic fairy tales open this way: كانَ يا ما كانَ - once upon a time.
The past of عِنْدي (I have) also takes كانَ: كانَ عِنْدي وَقْتٌ - I had time. This is a different use from "there was": عِنْدي is the predicate, placed before its subject وَقْتٌ as in the present عِنْدي وَقْتٌ. A phrase like عِنْدي has no ending to change, so nothing takes -an, and the subject وَقْتٌ stays nominative. كانَ agrees with وَقْت, the thing you had, not with "I".
كانَ usually opens the sentence, and in that position it stays singular even before a plural subject: كانَ الطُّلّابُ مَشْغولينَ - the students were busy. When the subject comes first, the verb agrees in full: الطُّلّابُ كانوا مَشْغولينَ.
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises
Practice Exercisesكان الطالبُ مجتهداً.
The student was hardworking.
كان makes الطالب the subject (nominative) and مجتهداً the predicate (accusative - note the tanween fatha اً).
كانت المدينةُ جميلةً.
The city was beautiful.
كانت (feminine form) because المدينة is feminine. جميلةً is accusative (tanween fatha on taa marbuuta).
كنتُ تعبانًا.
I was tired.
كُنتُ = I was. The subject pronoun is embedded in the verb. تعبانًا is accusative.
كنّا سعداءَ.
We were happy.
كنّا = we were. سعداءَ (happy, plural) is accusative - broken plural with fatha ending.
كانَ جَدّي خَبّازاً في دِمَشْقَ.
My grandfather was a baker in Damascus.
After كانَ the predicate خَبّاز (baker) takes the accusative -an: خَبّازاً (khabbāzan). The subject, جَدّي, stays as it was.
كانَ الجَوُّ حارّاً في الأُقْصُرِ أَمْسِ.
It was hot in Luxor yesterday.
Literally "the weather was hot". English needs an empty "it"; Arabic names the weather, الجَوُّ. حارّ has a shadda, and the accusative adds -an: حارّاً (ḥārran).
لَيْسَ المَتْحَفُ مَفْتوحاً اليَوْمَ، سَيَكونُ مَفْتوحاً غَداً.
The museum isn't open today; it will be open tomorrow.
لَيْسَ, "is not", is a sister of كانَ, so its predicate is accusative too: مَفْتوحاً. سَيَكونُ, the future of كانَ, does the same.
أَصْبَحَتْ أُخْتي طَبيبَةً، وَهِيَ تَعْمَلُ في بَيْروتَ.
My sister has become a doctor; she works in Beirut.
أَصْبَحَ, in origin "to be in the morning", is used as "to become". As a sister of كانَ it puts its predicate in the accusative: طَبيبَةً (ṭabībatan).
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Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises
§ 41 (pp. 99-100): كانَ, when it "supplies the place of the logical copula, requires the predicate ... to be put in the accusative". If كانَ has only a subject, "that subject is put, like every other, in the nominative", as in "there was a merchant"; the grammarians call the first use the incomplete كانَ (النّاقِصَة) and the second the complete كانَ (التّامَّة). This backs كانَ البَيْتُ كَبيراً and كانَ يا ما كانَ.
§ 42 (pp. 101-102): the same construction belongs to "the sisters of kāna", which add to the idea of existence (a) duration or continuity (زالَ with a negative, as in ما زالَ), (b) change (صارَ, "to become"), (c) a time of day (ظَلَّ, أَصْبَحَ, أَمْسى and others, "often used as simple synonyms" of كانَ), or (d) negation, لَيْسَ. This is the table of sisters on this page.
Chapter 36, "Verbs of being, becoming, remaining, seeming (kaan-a wa-ʾaxawaat-u-haa)" (pp. 634-640), is the modern reference treatment of كانَ and its sisters in MSA. Cited from the publisher's catalogue record (chapter title and pages); the chapter text was not consulted.