Adjectives describe nouns: a good son, a great god. In Egyptian they behave in two ways that English adjectives do not. They come after the noun, and they change their ending to match it. Both ideas build on Masculine and Feminine, The Plural and the word order you saw in The Indirect Genitive.
Key idea
| Masculine | Feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | nṯr nfr a good god | nṯrt nfrt a good goddess |
| Plural | nṯrw nfrw good gods | nṯrwt nfrwt good goddesses |
The endings are the ones you already know from nouns: nothing for masculine singular, -t for feminine, -w for masculine plural, -wt for feminine plural. In hieroglyphs the plural ending of an adjective is often not written out, and a feminine plural adjective may be spelled like the singular; the transliteration and your translation follow the noun.
| Adjective | Meaning | Feminine | Masculine plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| nfr | good, beautiful | nfrt | nfrw |
| wr | great | wrt | wrw |
| ꜥꜣ | big, great | ꜥꜣt | ꜥꜣw |
| bjn | bad | bjnt | bjnw |
| nḏs | small | nḏst | nḏsw |
| wꜥb | pure | wꜥbt | wꜥbw |
Adjectives as nouns
An adjective can also stand alone as a noun: nfr “a good one, something good”, wrw “the great ones, the nobles”, nfrt “good things” (the feminine is often used for “a thing”). Context decides. In ḫt nbt nfrt “every good thing” from the offering formula, both nbt and nfrt agree with the feminine noun ḫt “thing”.
Why it works
Common mistake
Worked example: Agreement
- Noun first: nṯrt.
- The noun is feminine singular, so the adjective takes -t: wrt.
Answer: nṯrt wrt
Worked example: Plural
- Noun: sšw, masculine plural.
- Adjective: nfr + w.
Answer: sšw nfrw
Worked example: Translate
- pr “house”, masculine.
- ꜥꜣ “great, big”, masculine: it agrees.
Answer: “a great house” (and as one word, pr-ꜥꜣ, the palace and later “pharaoh”)