فَهَذِهِ الْأَفْعَالُ تَدْخُلُ أَيْضًا عَلَى الْمُبْتَدَإِ وَالْخَبَرِ، فَتَرْفَعُ الْمُبْتَدَأَ وَيُسَمَّى اسْمَ «كَانَ»، وَتَنْصِبُ الْخَبَرَ وَيُسَمَّى خَبَرَ «كَانَ».
Translation: These verbs enter a mubtadaʾ–khabar construction, retain the former mubtadaʾ as a nominative noun called ism kāna, and put its khabar in the accusative, called khabar kāna.
This reverses the familiar pattern of inna and its sisters: inna has an accusative ism and nominative khabar, while kāna has a nominative ism and accusative khabar.