How hieroglyphs work

The ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphs to write their language. You’ll find pictures of birds, people, tools and many other things. But recognizing the picture is only the first step. In a word, that picture could represent a sound, a whole word or a clue to meaning.

Start with sounds

The owl 𓅓 could represent m, the water sign 𓈖 could represent n, and the mouth 𓂋 could represent r. These belong to the common teaching set of 24 single-consonant signs. You can practice their readings in the quiz.

Other signs represented two or three consonants. The house sign 𓉐, for example, could represent pr. A single picture did not always mean one sound.

Is it an alphabet?

An alphabet includes letters for consonants and vowels. An abjad mainly represents consonants. Egyptian spelling usually left vowels unwritten, but it also used word signs and classifiers. Scholars describe this as a mixed logographic and phonographic writing system.

Words and clues to meaning

A logogram represents a word with one sign. A classifier, also called a determinative, helps you identify the meaning or category of a word without adding another consonant. The same sign could have different roles in different words.

Where to begin reading

People and animals normally face the start of a line. Start from that side. Columns run from top to bottom. Within a line, signs could fit into compact groups called quadrats. Hiero Pro currently enters a linear left-to-right sequence; it does not arrange those groups.

Codes are reference labels

G17 identifies the owl in a modern catalog. The G category contains birds. The reading m tells you a consonant value. Neither the code nor the reading is a translation of a sentence.