When Kāna Enters: Fixing the Predicate Without Breaking the Sentence
After a 30-script mock test, the Arabic department posts two sentences: «كانَ الطالبانِ مجتهدَيْنِ» and «إنَّ الطالبَيْنِ مجتهدانِ». Candidates must give the i‘rāb of the predicates. Twenty-seven scripts contain at least one case-ending error: 18 wrote «مجتهدين» after «إنَّ», and 9 wrote «مجتهدان» after «كان». One candidate's note reads «الخبر دائمًا مرفوع» and applies that rule to both sentences. The teacher has three minutes in a crowded revision period to correct the misconception without reteaching the whole chapter. The board already lists the operators كان، إنّ، ظنّ، ليت. A student asks: «If both sentences have a predicate, why not the same ending?»
1. Give the correct i‘rāb of both predicates and explain the rule that resolves the student's question.
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Correct parsing:
- «مجتهدَيْنِ» is خبر كان منصوب وعلامة نصبه الياء لأنه مثنى.
- «مجتهدان» is خبر إنّ مرفوع وعلامة رفعه الألف لأنه مثنى.
The student's question is answered by distinguishing the operator. كان is a verb of the kāna family: it makes its ism marfūʿ and its khabar mansūb. إنّ is a particle of the inna family: it makes its ism mansūb and its khabar marfūʿ. The predicate is not 'always' anything; its case is assigned by the governing word. Read the operator first, then assign the roles of ism and khabar.
2. The note «الخبر دائمًا مرفوع» is a dangerous half-truth. Explain what it gets right, what it misses, and how to decide in 10 seconds.
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It gets one default right: in a plain nominal sentence such as «الطالبُ مجتهدٌ», the khabar is marfūʿ. It misses governed contexts. After «كان», the khabar is mansūb; after «إنّ», the khabar is marfūʿ. A 10-second routine:
- Spot the operator before the noun.
- Label the ism and the khabar.
- Apply that operator's case rule.
- Check the dual or plural sign: الألف for raf‘, الياء for nasb.
The 27 errors came from skipping step 1 and applying a default everywhere.
3. A candidate suggests dropping «كان» to avoid the ending. Evaluate this shortcut.
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Dropping «كان» is not a neutral simplification. «كان الطالبان مجتهدين» is a past-tense governed sentence; «الطالبان مجتهدان» is a present nominal sentence. The shortcut changes tense and removes the very structure being tested. In an i‘rāb question, the candidate must parse the sentence as given. If unsure, identify the operator and apply its rule rather than deleting it. Deleting the operator would also make the answer unresponsive to the question, so it risks losing all the marks, not just the case ending.