Skip to content

Free lessons

Free hieroglyph lessons, in reading order.

61 free lessons, written to be read in order. Begin with the short path below, work through the sign lessons, then continue into the grammar course. Every hieroglyph is rendered with JSesh, the typesetting software Egyptologists use, and every lesson is checked against its sources before it is published.

Start here

New to hieroglyphs? These lessons cover which way to read, the signs that work like letters, how to find a king's name, and the signs you are not meant to pronounce.

  1. 1Which way do hieroglyphs read?Hieroglyphs can run left to right, right to left, or top to bottom, and the direction is not fixed. This beginner lesson shows how the faces of people, birds and animals act as a built-in compass telling you where each line begins.
  2. 2Six hieroglyphs that work like lettersMost people think every hieroglyph is a picture-word, but about two dozen common signs each write a single consonant, working much like letters. Learn six of them and you can start sounding out real inscriptions.
  3. 3Six more hieroglyphs that work like lettersThe alphabet lesson covered six single-consonant signs. Here are six more, and between them you can already sound out a surprising number of real Egyptian words.
  4. 4The hieroglyphs English speakers find hardestSix Egyptian consonants have no easy English equivalent, and they are where beginners tend to slow down. This lesson walks through each sign and explains why the dots and hooks in transliteration matter so much.
  5. 5Six more single-consonant hieroglyphsSix more single-consonant hieroglyphs: the sandy slope, hand, cobra, tethering rope, ring stand and door bolt. They bring you to eighteen of the twenty-four uniliteral signs, enough to sound out names, titles and everyday words.
  6. 6How to spot a king's name on any Egyptian wallYou do not need to read Egyptian to find a pharaoh's name on a temple wall. Learn to spot the oval ring called a cartouche, and the two small titles that tell you whether you are looking at a king's throne name or birth name.
  7. 7The hieroglyphs you are not meant to pronounceSome hieroglyphs are never spoken aloud. Placed silently at the end of a word, these determinatives tell the reader what kind of word it is. Meet five of the most common, from the seated man to a pair of walking legs.

Reading the signs 37 lessons

The single-consonant signs, reading direction, royal names, determinatives, and the families of signs you meet on real monuments.

  1. 1Six hieroglyphs that work like letters
  2. 2How to spot a king's name on any Egyptian wall
  3. 3Which way do hieroglyphs read?
  4. 4The sentence on almost every Egyptian stela
  5. 5Ankh, djed, was: the three wishes behind every king
  6. 6The feather that weighed a soul
  7. 7Count like an Egyptian: 1, 10, 100, 1,000
  8. 8The owl is not an omen: hieroglyph false friends
  9. 9Read Tutankhamun's cartouches yourself
  10. 10Three signs you will see everywhere: nfr, nb, ra
  11. 11Six more hieroglyphs that work like letters
  12. 12The hieroglyphs English speakers find hardest
  13. 13Six more single-consonant hieroglyphs
  14. 14The hieroglyphs you are not meant to pronounce
  15. 15The animals living inside Egyptian words
  16. 16How to spot a god's name in a hieroglyphic text
  17. 17How Egyptian turned body parts into abstract words
  18. 18Seeing, hearing and breathing in hieroglyphs
  19. 19The women written into the hieroglyphic script
  20. 20Egyptian jobs, written as little seated figures
  21. 21Five more gods you can recognise on sight
  22. 22When half an animal stands for the whole idea
  23. 23Lions, leopards and giraffes in the hieroglyphic script
  24. 24How hieroglyphs write death, grief and the mummy
  25. 25Sky, land and creation in the hieroglyphic script
  26. 26Seth and the animals of chaos
  27. 27Old age, prayer and beer: more people in the hieroglyphic script
  28. 28The six hieroglyphs you will see most often
  29. 29Five Egyptian symbols you have already seen
  30. 30The small signs inside Egypt's biggest words
  31. 31Goats, calves and the ram-headed god
  32. 32Beyond the fields: the wild animals in the sign list
  33. 33How hieroglyphs write defeat, chaos and the word no
  34. 34Hugging, rowing and giving: arms in the hieroglyphic script
  35. 35How a finger came to mean ten thousand
  36. 36Kings, nobles and statues in the hieroglyphic script
  37. 37Cats, hounds and jackals in the hieroglyphic script

Middle Egyptian grammar 24 lessons so far

A step-by-step course in the language itself, from gender and number to the verb forms, following Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar and Allen's Middle Egyptian. It assumes you know the single-consonant signs from the first lessons above.

The grammar course with lesson summaries →

  1. 1Brothers, sisters and pairs: how Egyptian marks gender and number
  2. 2Every house or lord of the house: where Egyptian puts its adjectives
  3. 3My house, his house, their house: the Egyptian suffix pronouns
  4. 4The king of Egypt: two ways to say "of" in Egyptian
  5. 5Why the god comes first: honorific transposition in hieroglyphs
  6. 6Horus of the horizon: how Egyptian makes adjectives with -y
  7. 7This place, that day: demonstratives in Egyptian
  8. 8The sun is in the sky: Egyptian sentences without a verb
  9. 9There is nothing: saying "not" in Egyptian with n and nn
  10. 10Within this isle: Egyptian prepositions
  11. 11He is good: the Egyptian dependent pronouns
  12. 12I am your father: the Egyptian independent pronouns
  13. 13The scribe sends you: word order in an Egyptian verbal sentence
  14. 14The five great names: reading a pharaoh's royal titulary
  15. 15I belong to Rēꜥ: "my", "mine" and "have" in Egyptian
  16. 16Year 2, third month of inundation: how to read an Egyptian date
  17. 17The god heard the voice: the Egyptian past with sḏm·n·f
  18. 18Behold, you have come: the Egyptian stative
  19. 19The army is going forth: the Egyptian pseudo-verbal construction
  20. 20Do not fear: the Egyptian imperative
  21. 21The place where the gods are: Egyptian relative clauses with nty and iwty
  22. 22Loved and to love: the Egyptian verb classes
  23. 23A hearing son: the Egyptian participles
  24. 24One to whom judges listen: Egyptian relative forms

New lessons and news by email.

An email when a new lesson or news story publishes (currently most days), and nothing else. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe link, and your address is used only for this (privacy policy).