In Writing the Plural you saw how the script shows “more than one”. Now for the grammar: the plural endings themselves, which the transliteration always writes even when the hieroglyphs leave them out. You need Masculine and Feminine too, because the ending depends on gender.
Key idea
| Singular | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| nṯr | nṯrw | gods |
| zꜣ | zꜣw | sons |
| pr | prw | houses |
| ḥqꜣ | ḥqꜣw | rulers |
| nṯrt | nṯrwt | goddesses |
| zꜣt | zꜣwt | daughters |
| ḫꜣst | ḫꜣswt | foreign lands |
| njwt | njwwt | towns |
Many grammars separate the ending with a dot: nṯr.w, nṯr.wt. On this site the dot is optional. Notice njwwt “towns”: the w of the plural joins the w already in the word, so there are two.
A famous plural
The rulers the Egyptians called ḥqꜣw ḫꜣswt “rulers of foreign lands” gave us the word “Hyksos”, through Greek. Both nouns are plural: ḥqꜣw (masculine, -w) and ḫꜣswt (feminine, -wt). It is a direct genitive, which you will meet in The Direct Genitive.
Why it works
Common mistake
Watch for nouns that already end in w. The plural ending is added all the same: hrw “day” becomes hrww “days”, ḏw “mountain” becomes ḏww. And some nouns name a group, such as rmṯ “people”: they take plural strokes in writing although they are not built with the ending -w. When the writing leaves the number unclear, an adjective or pronoun that agrees with the noun often shows which number the scribe meant, because it takes the plural ending too.
Worked example: Masculine
- Masculine: add -w.
Answer: sšw “scribes”
Worked example: Feminine
- Feminine: remove t, add wt.
- sn + wt.
Answer: snwt “sisters”
Worked example: Reading back
- The ending -wt is feminine plural.
- The stem is nb; the feminine singular is nbt “lady”.
Answer: “ladies”