II. The forms of the infinitive
The infinitive in Egyptian has the following form:
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hearing
|
sDm
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Strong verbs, no change
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Seeing
|
mAA
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Doubling verbs, doubling
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Loving
|
mrt
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Weak verbs, end in -t
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Giving/placing (r optional in both writings)
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rdit or dit
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 or  |
Extra weak verbs, end in -t
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Here are some examples to illustrate this:
Strong verbs
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The infinitive
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The verb
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Saying
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Dd
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Say
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Dd
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Throwing
|
amaA
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Throw
|
amaA
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Doubling verbs
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The infinitive
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The verb
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Seeing
|
mAA
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See
|
mAA
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|
Weak verbs
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The infinitive
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The verb
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Going out
|
prt
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Go out
|
pr(i)
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|
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Loving
|
mrt
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Love
|
mr(i)
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|
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Binding
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spt
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Bind
|
sp(i)
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|
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Spearing
|
stt
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Spear
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st(i)
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|
Extra weak verbs
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The infinitive
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The verb
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Giving
|
rdit
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Give
|
rdi
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|
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Giving
|
dit
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Give
|
di
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|
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Coming
|
iit
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Come
|
ii
|
|
The most noticeable feature of the Table is that the form of the infinitive of weak verbs ends in -t, and the form of the infinitive of extra weak verbs ends in -it.
Now, of course, infinitives of strong and doubling verbs do not offer us much help ill their writing. However, the context, and sometimes-other parallel examples, can help out. As an example:
stt rm(w) in snbi mAa-xrw
Spearing fish by Senbi, the justified
amaA r Apd(w) in snbi mAa-xrw
Throwing at the birds by Senbi, the justified
st(i)“spear” is a weak verb, hence the infinitive stt “spearing”. amaA,however, is a strong verb and does not provide particularly helpful writing. Yet, the context of the caption and the parallel with the other caption showing us stt “spearing” urge us to consider the infinitive and the translation “throwing”. Notice also how using the suggested translation scheme helps us to draw together a reasonable English translation of the whole “throwing at the birds by Senbi the justified”, whereas reasonable alternatives such as “throws at the birds” do not “throws at the birds by Senbi the justified” is not particularly good English.