كَانَ وَأَخَوَاتُهَا

كَانَ وَأَخَوَاتُهَا translates as ”كَانَ and her sisters”. These are الأَفْعالُ الناقِصَةُ (incomplete الأَفْعالُ)

كَانَ and her sisters are listed below:

الأَفْعالُ الناقِصَةُ	Meaning	Details
كَانَ	He was	There are two kinds of كَانَ: 1. كَانَ ناقِصة (complete كَانَ) – e.g. ”he was a teacher”, ”he was tired”. This comes in the meaning of ”to be” and needs a خَبر, so it is a جُمْلَةٌ إِسْمِيَّةٌ 2. كَانَ تامة(incomplete كَانَ) – when كَانَ means ”to exist” not ”to be” then it is a جُمْلَةٌ فعلِيةَ. For example, in the Quran ”!كٌن” means ”Exists” it is a command. Also ”فَيَكُونُ” is also جُمْلَةٌ فعلِيةَ” and he was i.e. he came into existence”
أَصْبَحَ	He became (by morning).	implies surprise, also means all of a sudden, because if someone wakes up and sees something changed they would be surprised.
أمسى	He became (by evening)
أضحى	He became (at late morning/mid morning)
صار	He became, transformed.	الصَيرورة means change or metmorphosis.
إِرْتَدَّ	He became, transformed, turned around	This is a sister of كَانَ , however it doesn’t make a جُمْلَةٌ إِسْمِيَّةٌ
تَحَوَّلَ	He became, tranformed	This is a sister of كَانَ , however it doesn’t make a جُمْلَةٌ إِسْمِيَّةٌ
عادَ	He returned or he became	This is a sister of كَانَ , however it doesn’t make a جُمْلَةٌ إِسْمِيَّةٌ
لَيْسَ	He is not
إِسْتَحالَ	Become impossible or very difficult	This is a sister of كَانَ , however it doesn’t make a جُمْلَةٌ إِسْمِيَّةٌ
دامَ	He remained forever (this way or that way)
مادامَ	same as دامَ.	The ما here is for negation, it is مامَصُولة it means ”that which persists”.
باتَ	He remained throughout the night/or spent the whole night.
ظَلَّ	He remained (throughout the daytime).	ظَلَّ comes from ظِل, which means shade. The meaning is: He remained so long as shade was around.
ماإَنْفَكَّ	He remained, He continued to be	إِنْفَكَّ means scattered or seperated, so because of the ما this means to remain intact
فَتِئَ	He remained,	Even though there is no ما, it is implied/understood in the language because the word فَتِئَ doesn’t come without ما
مافَتِئَ	He remained, He was still
مابَرِحَ	He remained/He is still.	To stay in the same state and not move on.
مازالَ and لايزالُ	He is still	زال يَزيلُ means something desisted, so when it is neglected it means it didn’t desist, i.e it still is

In Arabic a فِعْلٌ is usually considered a complete sentence. for example أَكَلَ means ”he ate”. No additional details are required, although they may be provided.

However, there is a group of أَفْعَال in Arabic which are generally unable to convey a complete meaning. These are called الأَفْعالُ الناقِصَةُ (incomplete الأَفْعالُ). For example, أَصْبَحَ means ”He became”. Clearly it is incomplete without information that answers ”what did he become?”.

Now, recall that in a جُمْلَةٌ إِسْمِيَّةٌ a مُبْتَدَأ is required and it is accompanied by either a خَبر or مُتَعَلِّقٌ بِالخبر which gives additional information. Because these incomplete الأَفْعالُ need extra information, they are grammatically considered to be مُبْتَدَأ in a جُمْلَةٌ إِسْمِيَّةٌ. The doer of the فِعْلٌ is called إِسْمٌ and its detail is called the خَبر.

In this module we will study such الأَفْعالُ الناقِصَةُ (incomplete الأَفْعالُ). The الأَفْعالُ الناقِصَةُ (incomplete الأَفْعالُ) that we will be studying are كَانَ وَأَخَوَاتُهَا and كَادَ وَأَخَوَاتُهَا.