jn asks questions (Questions) and means "by". Before a noun and a participle it has a third job: it points at the doer.
Key idea
jn + noun + participle means "it is (noun) who does": jn nsw rdj ḥtp "it is the king who gives an offering". With a sḏm=f instead of a participle it refers to the future: jn nsw rdj=f n=k t "it is the king who will give you bread".
Why it works
English singles out a doer with a "cleft" sentence: not "the king gives", but "it is the king who gives". Egyptian builds the same thing from pieces you know. The participle names the action ("one who gives", Active Participles), the noun names the doer, and jn marks the noun as the one meant, probably from its sense "by": "by the king (is) the giving". With a pronoun instead of a noun, Egyptian uses an independent pronoun (Independent Pronouns): ntf sḏm "it is he who hears".
| Egyptian | Translation |
|---|---|
| jn nsw rdj ḥtp | it is the king who gives an offering |
| jn nṯr sḏm ḫrw=j | it is the god who hears my voice |
| jn zꜣ=f ḏd mdt | it is his son who says the words |
| jn ḥm=f rdj jj=j | it was His Majesty who caused me to come |
| jn nsw rdj=f n=k t | it is the king who will give you bread |
| ntf sḏm | it is he who hears |
Worked example: Translate
Translate jn zꜣ=f ḏd mdt.
- jn + noun zꜣ=f "his son" + participle ḏd "who says".
- mdt "the words" is the participle's object.
Answer: "It is his son who says the words."
Worked example: Write it
Write "It is the god who hears" with jn, nṯr and sḏm.
- jn, the noun nṯr, then the participle sḏm.
Answer: jn nṯr sḏm
Why would a writer use it? To answer the question "who?". A king's inscription may insist that it was he, and no one else, who did a deed; a prayer may insist that it is this god who hears. When you see jn + noun + participle, the noun is the point of the sentence.
Common mistake
Reading this jn as a question. "Does the king give an offering?" would be jn dj nsw ḥtp, with jn before a full statement. Here jn is followed by a noun and then a participle, with no finite verb at all. Check what follows jn: a statement means a question; a noun plus a participle means "it is … who".