Common Determinatives

About thirty determinatives cover most words in Middle Egyptian texts. Learning them is the fastest way to guess what an unknown word is about. This lesson collects the most common ones; they build on Determinatives.

Key idea

The ones to know first: the seated man 𓀀, the seated woman 𓁐, the god 𓀭, the walking legs 𓂻, the man with hand to mouth 𓀁, the papyrus roll 𓏛, the house 𓉐, the town 𓊖, the hills 𓈉 and the water 𓈗.

Common determinatives (Gardiner’s sign list).
Sign	Code	What it shows	Determinative of
𓀀	A1	seated man	men, their names and jobs
𓁐	B1	seated woman	women and their names
𓀭	A40	seated god	gods and the king
𓂻	D54	walking legs	motion: go, come, run
𓀁	A2	man with hand to mouth	eating, drinking, speaking, thinking, feeling
𓏛	Y1	papyrus roll	writing and abstract ideas
𓉐	O1	house	buildings
𓊖	O49	village with crossroads	towns and cities
𓈉	N25	three hills	foreign lands and the desert
𓈗	N35A	three ripples	water and liquids
𓇳	N5	sun	the sun, light and time
𓀜	A24	man striking	force and effort
𓅪	G37	sparrow	small, bad or weak things
𓌙	T14	throw stick	foreign peoples
𓏊	W22	beer jug	beer and jars

The three hills alone: ḫꜣst “foreign land”, the desert hills that rise beyond the flat green valley.

Two look-alike pairs

The three hills 𓈉 mark foreign lands and the desert, which Egyptians grouped together: hilly country outside the flat valley. The mountain 𓈋, with two peaks and a valley between, is a different sign, the biliteral ḏw “mountain”. And the papyrus roll 𓏛 is never a sound sign: it marks words for writing (a book, a document) and for abstract ideas such as mꜣꜥt “truth”.

Why it works

Why does an idea like “truth” take a papyrus roll? Because the roll stood for writing and knowledge in general, and from there for anything that cannot be pictured. The choice of determinatives shows how Egyptians grouped the world: buildings with the house, liquids with water, emotions with the mouth.

Common mistake

Confusing the papyrus roll with a sound sign, or the three hills (foreign land) with the mountain sign ḏw. Neither the roll nor the hills is read; the mountain is read ḏw. Check: if a word ends in three hills, think of a foreign land or the desert.

Worked example: Predict the determinative

Which determinative would you expect for šm “go”?

It is a verb of motion.

Answer: the walking legs 𓂻

Worked example: Predict the determinative

And for wnm “eat”?

Eating is done with the mouth.

Answer: the man with hand to mouth 𓀁

Common Determinatives

Two look-alike pairs

Practice

Builds on

Leads to

Sources and further reading