Lesson 59 – الدَّرْسُ التَّاسِعُ وَالْخَمْسُونَ
/kāna/ and its sisters - كـانَ وَأَخَوَاتُـهـا
The characteristics of (kāna) and its sisters – خَصَائِص كَانَ وَأَخَواتِها
- We are still in lesson fifty nine of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
- (kāna) and its sisters are Arabic annuller verbs which precede a nominal sentence and make three changes in it as follows:
1-They change the meaning of the sentence as we studied in part (2) and part (4) of this lesson. I.e. they add to the sentence a new meaning as continuity, negating, or becoming etc.
2-They change the name of the subject to be called “the noun of (kāna)” or one of its sisters, and the predicated is changed to be “the predicate of (kāna)” or one of its sisters.
3-They change the declension of the predicate from nominative into accusative case. - The following example clarifies these changes:
| /muħammadun muĵtahidun/ | Before annuller verb |
|
/kāna muħammadun muĵtahidan/ | After annuller verb |
- The following table shows the changes happening in the above mentioned example:
|
| Before annuller | ||||||
| Declension | Declension | ||||||
| Sign | Case | Name | Sign | Case | Name | ||
| Đammah | Nominative | Predicate | Đammah | Nominative | Subject | ||
| After annuller | |||||||
| Declension | Declension |
| |||||
| Sign | Case | Name | Sign | Case | Name | Annuller verb (indeclinable on fatħah) | |
| Fatħah | Accusative | Predicate of kāna | Đammah | Nominative | Noun of kāna | ||
- All annuller verbs (كان وأخواتها) can be present, past or imperative except (لَيْسَ /laysa/) and (مادام /mā dāma). They are only used in the past.
- In the following table we can see some examples of nominal sentences before and after adding annuller verbs in the past and in the present tense:
| After annuller verb | Before annuller verb | ||||
| Present | Past | ||||
| English | Arabic | English | Arabic | English | Arabic |
| The man is being ill | /yakūnu ar raĵulu marīđan/ | The man was ill | /kāna ar raĵulu marīđan/ | The man is ill | /ar raĵulu marīđun/ |
| The grape will become red | /sayuŝbiħu al ξinabu aħmara/ | The grape became red | /aŝbaħa al ξinabu aħmara/ | The grape is red | /al ξinabu aħmaru/ |
| The manager becomes angry in the evening |
/yumsī al mudīru ghađbāna/ | The manager became (in the evening) angry | /amsa al mudīru ghađbāna
| The manager is angry | /al mudīru ghađbānu/ |
| The will be shining | /satuđħī ash shamsu sāŧiξatan/ | The sun became shining | /ađħat ash shamsu sāŧξatan/ | The sun is shining | /ash shamsu sāŧiξatun/ |
| The worker is still skillful | لا يَزَالُ العَامِلُ مُتْقِنًا عَمَلَهُ /lā yazālu al ξāmilu mutqinan ξamalahu/ | The worker is still skilful | مَا زَالَ العَامِلُ مُتْقِنًا عَمَلَهُ /mā zāla al ξāmilu mutqinan ξamalahu/ | The worker is skilful | /al ξāmilu mutqinun ξamalahu/ |
| Muhammad is still student in the university | لا يَنْفَكُّ مُحَمَّدٌ طَالِبًا فِي الجَامِعَةِ /lā yanfakku muħammadun ŧâliban fī al ĵāmiξati/ | Muhammad is still student in the university | ما اِنْفَكَّ مُحَمَّدٌ طَالِبًا فِي الجَامِعَةِ /mā infakka muħammadun ŧâliban fī al ĵāmiξati/ | Muhammad is a student in the university | مُحَمَّدٌ طَالِبٌ فِي الجَامِعَةِ /muħammadun ŧâlibun fī al ĵāmiξati/ |
| Khalid still fulfills his promise | لا يَبْرَحُ خَالِدٌ وَافِيًا بالعَهْدِ /lā yabraħu khalidun wāfiyan bil ξahdi/ | Khalid still fulfills his promise | ما بَرِحَ خَالِدٌ وَافِيًا بالعَهْدِ /mā bariħa khalidun wāfiyan bil ξahdi/ | Khalid fulfills his promise | /khâlidun wāfin bil ξahdi/ |