The stative has its endings (Stative Endings) and its meaning (What the Stative Means). Now, where does it stand in a sentence?
Key idea
The stative follows its subject, like an adjective after a noun. The subject is a noun or a pronoun, often after jw or mk: mk wj jj.kj "look, I have come"; jw=f jj.w "he has come"; jw zꜣt=j ꜥḥꜥ.tj "my daughter is standing".
Why it works
The stative describes its subject the way an adjective does, so it goes where a description goes, after the thing described. This is the same order as in the adverbial sentence, z m pr "the man is in the house": subject first, then what is said about it. Gardiner groups subject + stative with subject + ḥr + infinitive as one family, the pseudo-verbal construction (The Pseudoverbal Construction).
| Subject | Stative | Together |
|---|---|---|
| after mk: dependent pronoun wj | jj.kj | mk wj jj.kj "look, I have come" |
| after jw: suffix pronoun =f | jj.w | jw=f jj.w "he has come" |
| a noun: nṯr | ḥtp.w | jw nṯr ḥtp.w "the god is content" |
| after a verb: object sw | sḏr.w | gm.n=j sw sḏr.w "I found him lying down" |
Worked example: Find the subject
In mk sw ꜥnḫ.w "look, he is alive", what is the subject of ꜥnḫ.w?
- The subject comes before the stative.
- After mk it is a dependent pronoun: sw "him, he".
Answer: sw
Worked example: Write it
Write "My daughter is standing" with jw, zꜣt=j and ꜥḥꜥ.
- jw, then the subject zꜣt=j.
- The stative of ꜥḥꜥ for a feminine subject: ꜥḥꜥ.tj.
Answer: jw zꜣt=j ꜥḥꜥ.tj
The last row of the table points ahead: a stative can also follow the object of a verb and describe it, "I found him lying down". That is a circumstantial use, taken up in Circumstantial Clauses.
Worked example: A noun subject
Translate jw nṯr ḥtp.w.
- jw introduces the statement; nṯr "the god" is the subject.
- ḥtp.w is the stative of ḥtp "be content", with .w for "he".
Answer: "The god is content."
Common mistake
Looking for the subject after the stative. Students used to the sḏm=f read mk wj jj.kj with no subject, or take the next word in the sentence as the subject. With the stative the subject comes first; the stative follows like an adjective. Check: look to the left of the verb, not to the right.