You know the sḏm=f (What the sḏm=f Means) and the sḏm.n=f (What the sḏm.n=f Means). Put the negative n "not" in front of them and something surprising happens.
Key idea
n sḏm=f means "he did not hear", a past. n sḏm.n=f means "he cannot hear" or "he does not hear", a present or general statement. The two forms seem to swap their meanings when negated.
Why it works
The swap is less strange than it looks. The n negates a whole statement, and the forms after it are not quite the positive sḏm=f and sḏm.n=f you know. "He did not hear" denies that a hearing ever took place, so Egyptian used the form that names the act itself. "He cannot hear" denies that he has ever achieved hearing, a completed result, so it used the form of completion. Whatever the history, Gardiner's rule holds in practice: read n sḏm=f as a past, n sḏm.n=f as "cannot" or "does not".
| Positive | Meaning | Negative | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| sḏm=f | he hears; may he hear | n sḏm=f | he did not hear |
| sḏm.n=f | he heard | n sḏm.n=f | he cannot hear, he does not hear |
| jr=f | he does | n jr=f | he did not do |
| gm.n=f | he found | n gm.n=f | he cannot find |
In hieroglyphs the negative n is written with a sign of two arms held out, palms down (Gardiner D35), a gesture of "nothing". It stands at the head of its clause, before the verb.
Worked example: A past negative
Translate n ḏd=j.
- n + sḏm=f: the past negative.
- ḏd=j "I say".
Answer: "I did not say."
Worked example: Cannot
Translate n gm.n=f.
- n + sḏm.n=f: the present negative, "cannot" or "does not".
- gm.n=f from gmj "find".
Answer: "He cannot find (it)."
Worked example: Write it
Write "they did not hear".
- A past negative uses n + sḏm=f, without the .n.
- sḏm=sn "they hear".
Answer: n sḏm=sn
Common mistake
Expecting n sḏm.n=f to be past because sḏm.n=f is past. This is the classic Middle Egyptian surprise, and nearly everyone falls into it at first. Check: when you see n before a verb, count the .n. With it, translate "cannot" or "does not"; without it, "did not".
Other negatives follow in the next lessons: nn for "there is no" and for the future (nn, "There Is No"), n sḏmt=f "he has not yet heard" (The sḏmt=f), the negative verb tm (The Negative Verb tm) and m "do not!" (Do Not!).