مُسْتَقْبَل
root: ق-ب-ل / passive participle of form X / definition: future
On this blog, we’ve previously looked at combining كان with a past tense verb and with a present tense verb—but did you know we can place the future tense directly after كان too?
When we have كان (past tense) followed by a verb with a future tense marker, it describes something that could have happened, but didn’t.
For instance:
كُنتُ سَأَدرُسُ بِجِدّ
I would have studied diligently
كانوا سَيَستَقِرّونَ هُنا
they were going to settle down here
لَم يَكُن سَيَفعَلُ ذلك لَو عَلِمَ بِالحَقيقة
he wouldn’t have done that if he knew the truth
And if the subject is explicitly mentioned, it goes between كان and the other verb:
كانَت الكاتِبةُ سَتَكتُبُ كِتاباً آخَر
the writer would have written another book
Craving more grammar? Don’t forget to check out all the other grammar posts on The Arabic Pages, including last week’s The ذاك Suffix.
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