Phonetic Complement

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In the Egyptian hieroglyphs , one hieroglyph can in some cases represent several phonemes. In order to simplify and ensure the reading of the sign, one or more phonetic complements are appended to the sign , which usually consist of one- consonant signs and thus only allow one reading of the sign; two-consonant signs can rarely complement each other. In most cases, however, multi-consonant characters are also complemented with a unique sound value. Examples are:

3b-b for 3b (the first character could also be read mḥr without a complement ); mn-nw for mn.w "monuments".

Phonetic complementation is by no means mandatory and can be omitted if there is insufficient space on the written medium. Some hieroglyphic writings can therefore only be read and understood in their context.