Talim-ul-Quran — Page 144
(Madi baid) الْمَاضِي الْبَعِيْدُ. THE DISTANT PERFECT kāna: he/it was/to be kana is the most commonly used verb in Arabic. The Arabic verb has two tenses, the perfect and the imperfect. The perfect is used to narrate completed events (past tense or present perfect), while the imperfect describes events which have not been completed. Verbs in the perfect tense consist of a stem indicating the basic meaning and a pronoun suffix indicating the person, gender and number of the subject. The verb has two perfect stems, ts kān- and is kun-, to which the suffixes are added. in the case of the third person (male and female) the stem kān- is used and the suffixes a and at are added to indicate the person. Consequently, ¿ kāna does not actually mean the infinitive 'to be', but it means 'he was'. The pronoun subjects, "I, you, he and she" are all included in the verb and are indicated by the verb forms and ending. The gender of the verb must match that of the subject. e. g. . huwa fil baiti, He is in the house هُوَ فِي الْبَيْتِ . kana fil baiti, He was in the house كَانَ فِي الْبَيْتِ. Salihatu fil baiti, Saliha is in the house صَالِحَةُ فِي الْبَيْتِ . kanat Salihatu fil baiti, Saliha was in the house كَانَتْ صَالِحَةُ فِي الْبَيْتِ. The verb is always singular, regardless of the subject, as long as the subject follows the verb. e. g. كَانَ kanatinnisa'u min kiniya, The women were from Kenya. When كَانَتِ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ كِيْنِيَا kana is prefixed to εline Mudari', it converts it into the past continuous. . Example:. A kana yadhabu (He used to go). 144