← Back to all Egyptian Arabic verbs
Root Verb
كان
kan
to be
ك و ن
As a hollow verb with a 'waw' root, the middle vowel shortens to 'u' before consonant-initial suffixes in the past tense (e.g., kunt). Present tense describes habitual states or facts since equational sentences typically omit 'to be'.
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Past Affirmative
أنا
I — "I was"
How these tenses work
The present tense
Person prefixes, plus the dialect's marker for "now" or "usually".
The past tense
One stem, eight endings.
The future
One small prefix or word in front of the present.
Saying "not"
Negating verbs, nouns and adjectives.
Roots and verb forms (Form I–X)
How three root letters and a pattern make a verb.
Verb classes: sound, hollow, defective, doubled
Why some verbs change shape when they conjugate.