Many sentences in Arabic, written in the present tense, do not require the verb “to be” (e.g. “is”, “are”, “am”). Nominal sentences in the present tense do not use the “to be” verb, such as ٌٌُُالسماءُ أزرقٌ (al-samaa’u azraqun) - “The sky is blue”.

For the past and future tense, Arabic has the verb كانَ (kana) (”to be”).

• كنتُ طالب - I was a student. (comparable to أنا طالب - I am a student)
• كُنّا نسكن في مصر - We used to live in Egypt.

In the future tense:

• سَأكونُ في لندن يوم الاثنين - I will be in London on Monday.

There are a few situations where present tense sentences need to use كانَ.

Conjugation

As with other verbs in Arabic, كانَ is conjugated.