It’s time to look at verbs in more detail. As in most languages, verbs are probably the most complicated part of Egyptian, but don’t let that trouble you. The basics are simple enough to get the hang of, and we’ll build from there.
Roots
The root of an Egyptian verb consists of a set of consonants, which are referred to as radicals. Many typical Egyptian verbs have three radicals, but some have only two, and there are classes of verbs that have as many as six. Here are a few important Egyptian verbs, with their lists of radicals. We will use these as examples as we explain forms below.
𓏠𓈖𓏜 mn “remain; be set, established” (m, n)𓁹 jrj “do, make” (j, r, j)𓋹𓈖𓐍 Ꜥnḫ “live” (Ꜥ, n, ḫ)
𓌃𓂧𓅱𓀁 mdwj “speak” (m, d, w, j)
As we learned many lessons ago, the root traditionally used by Egyptologists as the paradigm, that is, the example to show verb forms, is 𓄔𓅓 sḏm “hear”, which has three radicals (s, ḏ, m). In Egyptian, this means it mainly serves as a shorthand for naming various forms. You will encounter a form called the “sḏm.f”, and the “sḏmtj.fj”, and others. For example, the “sḏm.f form” of mdwj would be mdwj.f.
Weak radicals
As we have previously learned, the consonants j and w are considered weak as they frequently are left unwritten, especially at the end of a word. When the last radical of a verb is a weak consonant, that usually means the verb behaves a bit differently than verbs whose final radical is not weak, even if they have the same number of radicals.
Base stem
From a verb’s root, we derive one or more stems. The simplest and most essential for using the verb correctly is called the base stem. Every verb has a base stem, but not every verb has all of the other kinds.
For most verbs, the base stem is the same as the root. But if the root ends in a weak radical, the base stem of the verb (with a very few exceptions) is what remains of the root when that final radical is dropped. For example, the base stems of the example verbs above are: mn, jr, Ꜥnḫ, and mdw. Note that jrj and mdwj lost their final -j to form their base stems. But also note, mdwj only lost its final -j; it does not then also lose the -w, even though that is also a weak consonant.
The base stem carries the basic “dictionary” meaning of the verb. mdwj means “speak, say”, and that’s what its base stem mdw conveys. We care about the base stem because there are verb forms which build on the base stem rather than the root.
Geminated stem
The astrological sign of Gemini, “the twins”, is the mnemonic for the next stem, since the term comes from the same Latin root. If you double the last radical of the base stem, you get the geminated stem. For our example verbs, you would expect these to be mnn, jrr, Ꜥnḫḫ, and mdww. That is correct for mnn, jrr, and Ꜥnḫḫ.
But it turns out that not every verb can form a geminated stem. mdwj, with base stem mdw, is one that does not. Although you would predict it to be mdww, no form that would use that stem exists. In fact, when you see the full list of verb classes, there are more which cannot form geminated stems than there are which can.
The geminated stem expresses the idea of doing the action continually, repetitively, normatively, or the like. For example, the geminated stem of mrj “want, desire” is mrr, since the third radical of mrj is weak and dropped before geminating. mrr typically means a more lasting “love”, because it is a desire that continues.
Geminated roots
Note that the geminated stem is not the same as having a geminated root. A verb has a geminated root if its root ends in two identical consonants. So the verb wnn has a geminated root, whereas Ꜥnḫḫ is the geminated stem derived from the non-geminated root Ꜥnḫ.
Geminated stems of geminated roots
Suppose we have a verb with tmm for a root. Therefore, its base stem is also tmm, and its geminated stem, in theory, would therefore be tmmm.
Now recall the the “two consonants together” rule: in hieroglyphs, if two instances of the same consonant happen together with no vowel between them, they were only written as one copy of the consonant.
So let’s imagine possible ways this verb could have been pronounced, depending on where the vowels fell between the two (with the base stem) or three (with the geminated stem) “m”s.
| Imagined pronunciations1 | Form built from which stem? | Would be written | Explanatory notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| “tamma” | Base (tmm) | tm | No vowel separates the two “m”s, so they are written as one. |
| “tamam”, “atnan” | Base (tmm) | tmm | In these versions, the “m”s are separated by a vowel, so they are both written. |
| “tamamma” or “tammama” | Geminated (tmmm) | tmm | Two of the “m”s are not separated, so they are written as one, but the third is separate, so it is written as another. |
| “tamamam” | Geminated (tmmm) | tmmm | The three “m”s are separated by vowels, so they are all written. |
Now as it turns out, a form actually written tmmm does not appear, so there probably wasn’t a form pronounced something like “tamamam”. Instead, when there are three “m”s because of the geminated stem tmmm, it is only ever written tmm, so it seems like either the first and second, or the second and third, had no vowel between them.
So the only forms we see in writing are tm, which can only be from the base stem (when the paired consonants are together), and tmm, which could be from the base stem or the geminated stem, and that is something we must keep in mind. In short: if a verb has a geminated root but can also form a geminated stem, then when you see it written with two copies of the geminate consonant, it could be built either on the base stem or the geminated stem.
Causative stem
The causative stem conveys the meaning of causing the action of the verb: the causative of “live” means “bring to life, revive”.
The causative is formed simply by adding a prefix s- to the front of the root, not the base stem. This is true even for roots with weak final radicals. You would therefore expect the causative stems of our four examples to be smn, sjrj, sꜤnḫ, shꜢj, and smdwj. However, sjrj and smdwj do not exist; as we said, not every verb has a causative stem. sm, sꜤnḫ, and shꜢj do indeed exist.
All causatives begin with s, but not every verb beginning with s is a causative; sḏm is an example of a non-causative verb that begins with s.
Dictionaries usually list causative stems as being separate roots entirely, although they are formed in a predictable way. So generally a dictionary would list sꜤnḫ as a separate entry from Ꜥnḫ. This is not the case with geminated stems, however; Ꜥnḫḫ would be considered a form of Ꜥnḫ.
Irregular Verbs
Some verbs behave differently from other verbs of their class in one or another form, but there are three which are particularly irregular.
| Verb | Base | Geminated |
|---|---|---|
| 𓂋𓂞 rdj “cause, give, put” | Can be written with the mouth 𓂋 r followed by either of the biliterals for dj: 𓂋𓏙 or 𓂋𓂞, or infrequently just followed by the arm 𓂋𓂝. Irregularly, it has a second base stem which means the same thing: dj, spelled like rdj without the r (𓏙, 𓂞, 𓂝) | dd, spelled as one of the glyphs for the base stem dj twice. (𓏙𓏙, 𓂞𓂞, 𓂝𓂝) |
| 𓇍 jjj or jwj “come, return” | Has two different stems, jjj and jwj. The former is spelled with the walking reed 𓇍 and sometimes a phonetic complement 𓇋 or 𓏭 and the “legs” determinative; the latter with the legs 𓂻 and usually a phonetic complement w, but the final j is rarely written. | The geminated stem is 𓂻𓅱 jw, rarely jww, apparently derived from the jwj stem rather than jjj. |
| 𓇋𓅓𓂜 jmj “not to be, not to do” | This verb is “defective”; it only appears in two forms. It appears in the sḏm.f form (the basic conjugated verb form) to negate wishes or commands (“you should not”, “it should not”) or as its own imperative m to negate the imperatives of other verbs. | Does not have a geminated stem. |