Constructions with kaan

Hi everyone!

With our last post on the use of participles, we’ve looked at all the important bits of the verbal system proper. But if you’ve been paying attention (or if you’ve just studied fuS7a), you’ll have noticed that there are a few holes in the system. In particular, how do we express continuous or regular action in the past, given that the perfective form can’t be used for this purpose? The answer involves the verb كان kaan ‘to be’.

As in fuS7a, it is possible to combine forms of كان with any other kind of sentence in order to change the tense reference. This is most common in the past, where it allows us to use imperfective constructions and ‘to be’ sentences with past reference. Note that the subjunctive form is used after kaan:

بيروح كل يوم biruu7 kill yoom he goes every day

كان يروح كل يوم kaan yruu7 kill yoom he used to go every day

Remember that it is unusual to use descriptive verbs, ‘to know’, etc in the perfective. Instead we have to use a form with kaan:

بيعرف منيح bya3ref imnii7 he knows very well

كان يعرف منيح kaan ya3ref imnii7 he knew very well

We can also produce past continuous and future-in-past forms (like كان سـ kaana sa- in fuS7a):

عم يشرب ماي 3am yishrab maay he’s drinking water	كان عم يشرب ماي kaan 3am yishrab maay he was drinking water
رح تحكي ra7 ti7ki she’s going to talk	كانت رح تحكي kaanet ra7 ti7ki she was going to talk

A perfective form gives a past-in-past (like كان قد فعل kaana qad fa3ala), although these forms are not as common as their English counterparts:

كنت سألت عن الإجار
kint sa2al^et 3an ⁱl2ajaar
I’d asked about the rent

كانت راحت
kaanet raa7et
she’d (already) left

Similarly, we can produce past-in-past forms with resultative-meaning participles and past continuous forms with continuous-meaning participles:

كتني جايه لعنا
kinti jaaye la3inna
you were coming here [جاية = ‘is coming’]

كانو باعتينلي المصاري
kaanu baa3tiinli lmaSaari
they’d sent me the money [باعتين = ‘they have sent’]

Although the perfective forms are most common, the imperfective of kaan can also be used in this way to produce future forms. Like the English equivalents, they are often used to express inferences:

بتكون جايه هلق
bitkuun jaaye halla2
she’ll be on her way now

بكون وقع منو ع الطريق
bikuun wi2e3 minno 3aTTarii2
he’ll have dropped it on the way

Occasionally, this structure adds a ‘repeated action’ meaning to another form:

كل يوم لما بخلص شغل بكون تعبت كتير
kill yoom lamma bkhalleS shighl ⁱbkuun t3ibt ⁱktiir
every day when I finish work I’m very tired