What is the ism of kāna (ism kāna wa akhawātihā)?
Start again from زَيْدٌ قَائِمٌ (zaydun qā'imun). Put كَانَ in front: كَانَ زَيْدٌ قَائِمًا (kāna zaydun qā'iman), Zayd was standing.
زَيْدٌ has not moved — it is still marfū', and it is now called the اِسْم كَانَ. قَائِمًا has moved into nasab.
كَانَ takes hold of a nominal sentence: the noun stays in rafa, the khabar drops into nasab.
Words that enter upon a ready-made nominal sentence and change its ruling are called the نَوَاسِخ (nawāsikh), the abrogators. There are three kinds of them, and كَانَ heads the first.
It has twelve sisters, and every one of them does exactly what it does.
| # | Meaning | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | أَصْبَحَ | aṣbaḥa | the description applies in the morning |
| 2 | أَضْحَى | aḍḥā | the description applies during the forenoon |
| 3 | أَمْسَى | amsā | the description applies in the evening |
| 4 | ظَلَّ | ẓalla | the description applies throughout the daytime |
| 5 | بَاتَ | bāta | the description applies during the night |
| 6 | صَارَ | ṣāra | the ism changes into the state the khabar names |
| 7 | لَيْسَ | laysa | it negates the khabar from the ism |
| 8 | مَا زَالَ | mā zāla | continuation |
| 9 | مَا بَرِحَ | mā bariḥa | continuation |
| 10 | مَا فَتِئَ | mā fati'a | continuation |
| 11 | مَا انْفَكَّ | mā infakka | continuation |
| 12 | مَا دَامَ | mā dāma | it limits the statement to the duration of a condition |
With كَانَ itself that is thirteen verbs in all — twelve sisters, and the one they are sisters to. Each works the same way: it raises the noun and puts the khabar into nasab. Only the time, or the state, differs.1 The four continuation verbs carry one meaning between them, by the agreement of the grammarians.
They do not all operate freely, though.
| Group | Condition | |
|---|---|---|
| operate freely | كَانَ، أَصْبَحَ، أَضْحَى، أَمْسَى، ظَلَّ، بَاتَ، صَارَ، لَيْسَ | no condition at all |
| operate only after a negation | زَالَ، بَرِحَ، فَتِئَ، اِنْفَكَّ | must follow a negation, a prohibition or a supplication |
| operates only with مَا | دَامَ | must follow the مَا of duration — مَا دَامَ |
This is why the last five are almost always met with مَا in front of them. Their derived forms — يَكُونُ، كُنْ، يُصْبِحُ — work exactly as the past forms do, under the same conditions.
They are called الْأَفْعَال النَّاقِصَة (al-af'āl al-nāqiṣa), the incomplete verbs, because unlike an ordinary verb they do not describe an action done by a doer. They only add a time or a state to a sentence that already exists — لَيْسَ عَمْرٌو شَاخِصًا (laysa 'amrun shākhiṣan), 'Amr is not setting out.
Do not confuse كَانَ with إِنَّ. They are mirror images.
كَانَ puts its noun in rafa and its khabar in nasab — كَانَ زَيْدٌ قَائِمًا.
إِنَّ puts its noun in nasab and its khabar in rafa — إِنَّ زَيْدًا قَائِمٌ.
Learn the pair together and neither will ever be in doubt.
- The thirteen verbs, their meanings and the conditions on their operation follow اَلنَّحْو التَّطْبِيقِي (an-Naḥw at-Taṭbīqī), which opens the chapter وَهِيَ ثَلَاثَةَ عَشَرَ فِعْلًا — “they are thirteen verbs”. ↩