Hafiz soon
Adh-Dhariyat · 51:17

They used to sleep but little of the night,

Sahih International

Word 1 of 6

كَانُوا۟

kānū

They used to

Word breakdown

كانُ

Fi'l · Verb

They used to

Rootكونkwn

to be, exist, happen

1,390× in the Quran · Extremely common

LemmaكَانَVerb (form I) - to be

وا

Ism · Personal pronoun

them/their

Grammar rules

Past tense verb

كَانُوا۟ (They used to) is a past tense verb — the action already happened and is complete.

We translate it in past tense — "did", "created", "said", etc.

Lesson 8 · Verbs — Past & Present