kien + adjective
A Past Description
Compare kien sabiħ, kienet sabiħa and kienu sbieħ.
How It Works
Combine a subject-appropriate form of kien with a predicative adjective. The copula distinguishes person and number, plus gender in third-person singular. The adjective follows its lexical paradigm: sabiħ, masculine singular; sabiħa, feminine singular; and sbieħ, plural.
Compare present Il-kamra sabiħa, “The room is beautiful,” with past Il-kamra kienet sabiħa, “The room was beautiful.” In this property assertion, the adjective has no definite article and no person endings.
Some adjectives, including interessanti, remain unchanged. Certain others allow alternative plural forms, so agreement has no universal suffix. Ordinary negation attaches to the copula: Il-ġnien ma kienx sabiħ, “The garden was not beautiful.” The adjective retains its subject-appropriate form.
Examples (3)
- Il-ġnien kien sabiħ ilbieraħ.
The garden was beautiful yesterday.
The copula and adjective match a masculine singular subject.
- Il-kċina kienet kiesħa bil-lejl.
The kitchen was cold at night.
The feminine subject selects kienet and kiesħa.
- Il-kotba kienu interessanti ħafna.
The books were very interesting.
Kienu is plural, while interessanti is invariant.
How It Connects
Learn This First
Combine a past copula with a subject-appropriate property description. Keep copular agreement, lexical adjective forms, article distribution, and negation on the copula distinct.
- kienA State or Event in the Past
The past copula lesson supplies the person forms that place the description in a past frame.
Level 2 - Describing a Subject
Predicate adjective agreement explains why sabiħ, kiesħa, or invariant interessanti describes the subject independently of the copula's person marking.
Level 1
Related Patterns
Words in This Pattern
Practice kien + adjective in Bubblegum
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