This page hosts an archive of hieroglyphs learning resources previously posted on this website (see the New Resources page for the most recent hieroglyphs activity). If you would like to receive email notifications when new resources are added, as well as other news, please join the mailing list. Read this article for some tips for new learners of hieroglyphs.
If you can't see a game's "start" icon you may need to reload this page.
New learners
One-consonant signs
The first challenge for new students is to learn the hieroglyphic "alphabet": the signs that represent single consonant sounds.
Use the flashcards to help you learn these signs. The front of the card shows the sign and the back shows its "transliteration" (a letter in italics - this is the way we represent the sign as the first stage of translation). The back also gives some very rough guidance on how to pronounce the sound. This is very approximate and is only intended to help you read your work out loud. We're not entirely sure how Middle Egyptian sounded - for more information refer to your teacher or textbook.
Once you're confident, use the quiz to test yourself.
Two- and three- consonant signs
Once you've learned the one-consonant hieroglyphs, it's time to move on to the hieroglyphs that each represent two or three consonants. There are lots of them, so it's best to take them gradually and start with the most common ones. Here's a set to get you started.
The two activities have the same content, so you can use the flashcards to learn or revise the signs then play unscramble to test yourself.
More two- and three- consonant signs
The previous hieroglyphs challenge introduced two- and three-consonant signs (see the hieroglyphs resources archive page.)
This quiz tests your knowledge of some other common two- and three-consonant signs.
Common determinatives
A determinative is a sign put at the end of a word in Egyptian hieroglyphs to give a general indication of the word's meaning. For example, the determinative that shows a pair of walking legs indicates that a word is concerned with motion. In this quiz, find the idea that each of these common determinatives conveys.
More experienced learners
Vocabulary - Common Verbs
Test your knowledge of common verbs by matching each verb with the most appropriate image.
Vocabulary - Common Nouns
1. Revise some common nouns referring to people using these flashcards.
2. Play a game to practise. The two games have the same content but different formats - choose the one that appeals to you.
Game 1 - Multiple choice quiz
(focus on translation)
Game 2 - Balloon pop!
(focus on transliteration)
Pop the balloons to drop the correct transliteration into the carriage. You can use your keyboard, mouse or touchscreen but you need to get the timing right!
Vocabulary - Person, Place or Thing?
This game assumes that you already know some Middle Egyptian vocabulary.
The aim is to sort the words into three categories: person, place or thing. The categories are elastic, for example, 'person' includes gods and 'place' includes anywhere you could go or be (in reality or theory!).
The games doesn't ask you to transliterate or translate, but if you come across words you don't know, it would be a good learning exercise to look them up in your dictionary or vocabulary list.
Grammar - Suffix Pronouns
Play this quick quiz to revise your suffix pronouns.
Grammar/ Vocabulary - Adjectives
Revise your Middle Egyptian adjectives with the flashcards then use the quiz to test yourself.
Remember that in Middle Egyptian there are three kinds of adjective: primary, secondary and derived. We'll practise sorting the quiz adjectives into these categories in a different challenge, which will be added to this page soon.
These activities do not form a continuous course of tuition: they are a selection of standalone exercises that I have created to help my students, and that you may like to use to support your learning. They are intended to be used alongside a course of study (independent or taught). The target learner level for each activity is indicated in the section heading; additional information is given in the activity title.
These resources pages are a work in progress, and I welcome constructive comments and requests for particularly activity types/ topics - please email me at drthomas@principiaparva.co.uk.
I have used JSesh (an open source word processor for hieroglyphs) to write the hieroglyphs and transliterations in some of my games. I'm very grateful to its creator for making this resource freely available to Egyptologists everywhere.
