The Translation of Kān and its Similar Verbs in Glorious Qur’ān into English

kān and its counterparts or the so-called ‘incomplete verbs’ (أفعالٌ ناقِصَةٌ) in Arabic are a special group of verbs operating on nominal sentence, causing changes in meaning of sentence. This group of verbs is characterized by their own peculiarities in terms of syntactic uses and semantic functions it produces while translating. The problem doesn’t reside in translating each verb individually, but syntactically in conjunction with other elements. The study aims at investigating syntactic uses and semantic functions of kān and its counterparts and how they are contextually translated in Glorious Qur’ān into English. To attain this goal, five English translations by five professional translators have been chosen to determine to what extent translators have accurately managed to convey meanings of kān and its counterparts into their English equivalents. Study hypothesizes that this group of verbs is not confined to its past forms and lexical meanings only, but it extends to indicate other time references and lexical meanings in context as well. To verify these hypotheses, kān and its similarities are identified and interpreted in (ST), then their renditions in (TTs) are syntactically and semantically analyzed and assessed. It has been concluded that difference in nature, uses, and functions of kān and its counterparts in Arabic causes an obstacle for translators to come up with accurate renderings in the TL.