Ten-minute hieroglyphs - Lesson 5: Determinatives
- Dr Sian Thomas
- Sep 15
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 31
Learning objectives
By the end of this lesson you will:
understand what determinatives are and their role in Middle Egyptian writing;
have met some common determinatives and have seen them in use;
know how Egyptologists categorise hieroglyphic signs (including determinatives) and how to look them up in standard sign lists..
You'll learn some common determinatives in the follow-up activity.
What are determinatives?
You learned in Lesson 2 that individual hieroglyphic signs can represent sounds or ideas. Words are often written by spelling out the consonants in the word using phonetic hieroglyphs, then adding one or more 'determinative' hieroglyphs that give an indication of meaning.
As an example, we looked at the word for 'ship' (dpt).
The first three signs give the consonants of the word (dpt). The final sign - a picture of a boat - tells you that the word is connected with the idea of boats in general. The determinative has no phonetic value (it wasn't read out loud), so you don't transliterate it.
Why do determinatives matter and how are they used?
Determinatives are important because they help you work out the meanings of words.
Determinatives can help you when a word is unfamiliar. Even if you'd never come across the word dpt before, based on its determinative and the sentence in which it was being used you would probably guess that it refers to some sort of boat.
Similarly, suppose you met the word itrw, written like this:
The determinative at the end (three ripples of water) tells you that this word means something to do with water. In fact it means 'river' - the determinative doesn't tell you the exact meaning, but it gives a big clue.
As well as helping students guess the meaning of words they haven't learned yet, determinatives can help us when the meanings of words are still unknown. This can happen, for example, with very rare words and with technical vocabulary like botanical, medical and mineral terms.
Another situation where determinatives can help is where two or more words have the same spelling but different meanings. Think of the the word 'bow' in English. This could refer to the action of bending your head or body, a special sort of knot, or even a weapon. From the sound alone you can't tell which meaning is intended, but adding a little picture could clear up any confusion.
As an example, consider these two words in hieroglyphs:
Both words have the same transliteration. The first one means 'be hungry'; the man with hand to mouth determinative helps a little in that it indicates that the word has something to do with eating, drinking, speaking, thought or emotion. The second word means 'hungry man'. This slight change in meaning is indicated by the addition of a second determinative - the seated man - which tells us that we're now talking about a man who's hungry
Finally, a practical advantage of determinatives is that - as Egyptian is written without spaces between words - you can use them to help you decide where one word ends and the next one starts.
Categories of determinative and how to look them up
Determinatives fall into broad categories, such as human figures, parts of the human body, birds, insects, plants, boats, bread and so on.
To look up a determinative (or indeed any hieroglyph) you'll need to use a comprehensive sign list like those in Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar and Allen's Middle Egyptian. These sign lists use the same systematic organisation of signs into broad groups. Each group has a letter (A-Z, with an extra group Aa at the end for 'unclassified') and each sign within each group has a number. Together they form a code, like A1 or M17.
For example:
Group A = male human figures.
A1 = seated man (a very common determinative for words involving people).
A2 = man with hand to mouth (used for eating, drinking, speaking, emotions).
... and so on
The codes are a useful shorthand - if you mention 'sign A1' to another Egyptologist, you'll both know that the seated man is meant.
So, if you see an unfamiliar determinative, you can look it up by:
deciding what kind of thing it shows (person, body part, plant, etc.);
finding that group in Gardiner’s (or another) sign list and reading through until you find the entry for the correct sign. The entry will explain how the sign is used.
Note 1: Sometimes it isn't obvious what the sign is a picture of. To help with this sign lists are usually accompanied by cross-reference charts that organise signs by shape (e.g. all the little ones together, all the tall ones together).
Note 2: Occasionally a teaching grammar will use a simplified system created by the author of that particular book instead of the standard classification. If so, the author will generally make this clear.
Tips for learners
Remember that words often have more than one determinative. Conversely, some words are always/ sometimes written without determinatives.
As a general point, 'spelling' was more fluid in hieroglyphs than in English. Avoid getting attached to the idea that a certain word must have a certain determinative; it's probably more accurate to say it usually or often has that determinative.
This lesson and the accompanying activities give an overview of the use of determinatives and a few examples. However, there are LOTS of determinatives. Don't try to learn them all at once, but do look up new determinatives when you meet them. Learning to use the sign lists is a key skill, and they're full of interesting examples and explanations.
Follow-up
Use the Lesson 5 flashcards to learn some common determinatives.
Practise reading words with determinatives in the Lesson 5 match-up quiz.
If you have a textbook, explore the sign list that you'll almost certainly find at the back. Try looking up some of the determinatives you met in the flashcards and/or some of the one-consonant signs you've already learned and read the entries for them.
