Lesson Four: Verbal Tenses
Past, Present, Future
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Verb Tenses
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Present & Future
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Constructing the Past Tense in Middle Egyptian
In This Lesson:
Sentence Review
Previously, we learned the word order of a sentence in Middle Egyptian,
Verb → Subject → Object (VSO):
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Verb (comes first)
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Subject (who is doing the action)
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Direct Object (recieves the action of the verb; comes next, if there is one)
Tense is simply a grammar tool that tells us when an action happens. It shows whether a verb belongs to the past, the present, or the future.
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Past: Describes something that already happened (like yesterday). (I walked.)
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Present: Describes a habit, routine, or what is happening right now. (I walk.)
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Future: Describes something that will happen later (like tomorrow). (I will walk.)
Verb Tense
So Far: The Present Tense Verb in Middle Egyptian
Lesson 3 introduced verbs and sentence structure. So far, we have studied the present tense. In Middle Egyptian, the present tense is constructed when either a noun or pronoun (the subject) follows the verb.
If the subject is a pronoun, it attaches directly to the verb as a suffix. In transliteration, we connect them with a dash (−) to show they form a single spoken word in the original hieroglyphs. For example:
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sdm-𝑓
("he hears" — the dash shows the pronoun is attached).
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sdm 𝑠
("the man hears" — no dash, because the noun is a separate word).
In English, we often convey the present tense by way of a helping verb, as in the sentence, "he is hearing", where "is" constitutes the helping verb. In Middle Egyptian, however, there is no helping verb equivalent. Thus, sdm-f can mean "he hears" or "he is hearing". In some contexts, it can even mean "he will hear". The future is typically expressed either by the particle ih, or it is simply implied.
Constructing the Past Tense Verb in Middle Egyptian
To express the past tense in Middle Egyptian, simply insert -n- between the verb stem and the subject. If a suffix pronoun is the subject, a dash (−) still connects it at the end of the transliteration (e.g., sdm-n-f).
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Note: Most standard Egyptological textbooks express the past tense marker using a dot or period rather than a dash (written as sdm.n-f). Because of our digital program's formatting, we will be using dashes for both here.
Use the navigational arrows to learn about the past tense in Middle Egyptian.
