Demonstratives point: “this man”, “that town”, “these gods”. Middle Egyptian has a small set, and like adjectives (Adjectives) most of them follow the noun and agree with it. One group goes in front, and it has a future: it became the Late Egyptian word for “the”.
Key idea
| Masculine | Feminine | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| “this” (after the noun) | pn | tn | (old forms, rare) |
| “that” (after the noun) | pf | tf | (rare) |
| “this, these” (before the noun) | pꜣ | tꜣ | nꜣ n |
| “these” (before the noun) | nn n |
The p-forms are masculine and the t-forms feminine, the same contrast as the feminine ending -t. zꜣ pn “this son”, zꜣt tn “this daughter”; nṯr pf “that god”, ḫꜣst tf “that foreign land”.
The plural, and the ones that go first
For “these”, Middle Egyptian usually puts nn before the noun and joins them with the genitive n: nn n zꜣw “these sons”, literally “these of sons”. In the same way pꜣ, tꜣ and nꜣ n stand before the noun: pꜣ z “this man”, tꜣ ḥmt “this woman”. These front forms belong to livelier, more everyday language; in Late Egyptian they lost their pointing force and became the definite article: pꜣ “the”.
Why it works
Common mistake
When a noun has both an adjective and a demonstrative, the demonstrative usually comes first, right after the noun: z pn nfr “this good man”. And pn and tn can stand alone as pronouns, “this one”. The little word pw, which you will meet in Sentences with pw, is another old demonstrative that came to be used to make sentences.
Worked example: This
- njwt is feminine: tn.
- tn follows the noun.
Answer: njwt tn
Worked example: That
- nṯr is masculine: pf.
Answer: nṯr pf
Worked example: These
- nn goes first, with the genitive n.
Answer: nn n nṯrw