Introduction
Past continuous in Arabic is when كَانَ as a helping verb meaning “was/were”, comes before the imperfect tense.
For example:
كانَ يَفْعَلُ
He was doing
Past continuous conjugation of كانَ يَفْعَلُ :
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3rd person masculine
Singular
كَانَ يَفْعَلُ
He was doing
Dual
كَنَا يَفْعَلانِ
They both were doing
Plural
كانُوْا يَفْعَلُونَ
They all were doing
3rd person feminine
Singular
كَانَتْ تَفْعَلُ
She was doing
Dual
كَنَتَا تَفْعَلانِ
They both were doing
Plural
كُنَّ يَفْعَلْنَ
They all were doing
2nd person masculine
Singular
كُنْتَ تَفْعَلُ
You were doing
Dual
كَنْتُمَا تَفْعَلانِ
You both were doing
Plural
كَنْتُمْ تَفْعَلُوْنَ
You all were doing
2nd person feminine
Singular
كُنْتِ تَفْعَلِيْنَ
You were doing
Dual
كَنْتُمَا تَفْعَلانِ
You both were doing
Plural
كُنْتُنَّ تَفْعَلْنَ
You all were doing
First-person (masculine/feminine)
Singular
كُنْتُ أَفْعَلُ
I was doing
Dual
–
Plural
كُنَّا نَفْعَلُ
We were doing
The conjugation for كَانَ is in the past tense though it is used along with imperfect tense يَفْعَلُ.
Examples:
ذَٰلِكَ بِمَا عَصَوا وَّكَانُوا يَعْتَدُونَ
That was because they disobeyed and were [habitually] transgressing. (2:61)
وَأَن تَصُومُوا خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ ۖ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
But to fast is best for you, if you only knew. (2:184)
كَانَا يَأْكُلَانِ الطَّعَامَ
They both used to eat food (5:75)
وَقَالُوا لَوْ كُنَّا نَسْمَعُ أَوْ نَعْقِلُ مَا كُنَّا فِي أَصْحَابِ السَّعِيرِ
And they will say, “If only we had been listening or reasoning, we would not be among the companions of the Blaze.” (67:10)
This Arabic lesson is now finished. The next one will be insha’Allah about the moods of the imperfect tense in Arabic.
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