Hieroglyphics Alphabet

Fact 1:

Hieroglyph system of writing did not exactly correspond with our alphabet. Missing letters: There are no hieroglyphs for letters such as such as 'e' or 'v'
 

Fact 2:

Vowels: Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs did not contain vowels such as E,I,O,U. but it did use the letter A.
 

Fact 3:

Consonants: Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs were written using consonants. The 21 consonant letters in the English alphabet are B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z.
 

Fact 4:

The English language is written from left to write, in horizontal rows.  The Hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt are written in horizontal rows or vertical columns.
 

Fact 5:

Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs were written in both directions from right to left or left to right. The 'starting point' or the direction for translating hieroglyphs is therefore not immediately apparent!
 

Fact 6:

The 'starting point' or direction from which the text is read is indicated by the human (or animal) figures that always face towards the beginning of the line.
 

Fact 7:

There were no spaces between the words expressed in Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
 

Fact 8:

The Ancient Egyptians did not use punctuation such as commas or question marks.
 

Fact 9:

The 'alphabet' used in the Egyptian writing system contained phonetic images, called a phonogram. A phonogram is an image that represents a spoken sound. The characters that are read as the sound of the object they represented.
 

Fact 10:

The alphabetical element of the ancient Egyptian writing system was combined with pictorial and symbolic elements. An understanding of all three elements, phonetic, pictorial and symbolic, is necessary to translate Egyptian Hieroglyphs - the alphabetical element is a great way to start.