I am facing a problem. There are some words whose main word I know, but I don’t know the derivatives as I haven’t started grammar, like ‘min’ and ‘minkum’. I know the word ‘min’ but not ‘minkum’. But If I mark ‘minkum’ as unfamiliar then ‘min’ is becoming unfamiliar as well. And I am also facing problem in the word ‘kana’ as there are two meanings ‘to be’ and ‘he was’. And I don’t understand how to distinguish between them.
Assalamu Alaikum Samin,
JazakAllahu khair for reaching out 
let’s sort this out for you in sha Allah.
You’re right that the word مِنْ is the main word, and مِنْكُمْ is a version of it with something attached. In Arabic, the attached pronouns (like كُمْ) aren’t separate words, they’re just endings that attach to words to show who it’s about. So when you see مِنْكُمْ, you’re still seeing the word “مِنْ”, it’s just combined with كُمْ (you all).
It helps to learn the attached pronouns like ـي (my), كَ (your), هُ (his), etc., because they’ll keep showing up.
Here’s a simple list of attached pronouns that can attach to prepositions (like مِن (from), فِي (in), عَلَى (on)), or to nouns (like book, table):
ـي = me / my
ـكَ = you (masc. singular)
ـكِ = you (fem. singular)
ـهُ = him / his
ـهَا = her / hers
ـنَا = us / our
ـكُمْ = you all (masc. or mixed group)
ـكُنَّ = you all (females)
ـهُمْ = them (masc. or mixed group)
ـهُنَّ = them (females)
Examples:
مِنِّي → مِنْ (from → from me), مِنْهُ (from him), مِنْكُمْ (from you all)
رَبِّي → رَبّ (Lord → my Lord), رَبُّهُ (his Lord), رَبُّهُمْ (their Lord)
كِتَابِي → كِتَاب (book → my book), كِتَابُهُ (his book)
Learning these pronouns will help you unlock a lot of forms in sha Allah.
As for your second point, كَانَ doesn’t have two different meanings. It just means “was”, the past of “to be.” When we say it means “to be”, we’re referring to its core meaning/main idea, but when it appears in a sentence, it always means something was the case. So you can always understand كَانَ as telling you that something was, or, it used to be.
Examples:
كَانَ الوَلَدُ يَبْكِي – The boy was crying
كَانُوا نَاجِحِينَ – They were successful
Hope this helps, and just let us know if you want us to explain anything else in sha Allah!
May Allah bless your learning and make it easy for you.
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