Past continuous states (كان + اسم الفاعل)

Active Participles for States (اسم الفاعل)

In Arabic, the active participle (اسم الفاعل) is derived from a verb. While it often translates to the "doer" of an action, for verbs involving posture, physical position, or clothing (such as standing, sitting, hiding, or wearing), it describes an ongoing state. For example, the active participle of the verb for "to sit" translates directly to "sitting" (جالس).

Past Continuous States with كان

To describe ongoing static situations in the past—like recalling what someone was wearing or where they were hiding—use the past tense auxiliary verb كان (to be) followed by the active participle.

Because the active participle acts as the predicate of كان, it takes the accusative case. For indefinite masculine words, this is usually written by adding an alif to the end (for example, لابس becomes لابسا). Both كان and the active participle must agree with the subject in gender.

Chaining States Together

When giving eyewitness accounts, you will often describe multiple states at once. You can easily chain multiple active participles together using the conjunction و (and). The single كان at the beginning of the sentence applies to all the coordinated participles.

Negating Past States

To clarify that someone was not in a certain state, negate the auxiliary verb using the negative particle لم followed by the jussive form يكن (or تكن for feminine subjects). The active participle remains in the accusative case.