can be at the end of
words which relate to some attribute or quality of water). Return to my Egyptology pages
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© Copyright 1999, Jim Loy
Sometimes it is helpful to be able to deduce what part of speech an Egyptian word is, even though you cannot find it in a dictionary. Then you can make some sense of the sentence, and maybe guess at the meaning of the word in question.
Most determinatives (See Determinative Signs In
Egyptian) represent nouns. Some of these can be part of other parts of
speech, if the word in question represents some quality of the noun (for
example, can be at the end of
words which relate to some attribute or quality of water).
represent verbs of physical
action.
usually represents a verb.
When it represents a noun, it is usually a quality or condition, rather than a
thing.
usually represents a noun (a
quality or condition) or an adjective. Do not mistake this sign for the
phonetic 
.
can represent almost any part
of speech.
can be at the end of almost
any part of speech. There is usually something vague about the word in
question. If it is a noun, it is a quality or condition. If it is a verb, it is
usually not a physical action. If it is a physical action, it is not an obvious
physical action (for example, "to place" is a physical action).The above observations have exceptions. Often an exception is avoided by
adding a second determinative, after the determinative in question. If
is part of a noun, then it may be
followed by 
. Similarly, a
"noun" determinative sign can be part of a non-noun, if it is
followed by one of the signs listed above.