The Egyptians actually had a core set of 24 “uniliteral phonograms” (single-consonant signs). You can think of them like an alphabet, though Egyptians also used 2-letter and 3-letter signs.

Here’s the classic list of the 24 one-consonant phonograms, with their approximate sound values:

The 24 “Alphabet” Signs of Hieroglyphs
• 𓄿 — ʾ (glottal stop, like a light “a”)
• 𓇋 — i / y
• 𓂝 — ʿ (deep voiced “a,” from the throat)
• 𓇌 — ii / y (double reed, often just “i”)
• 𓃀 — b
• 𓎡 — k / hard g
• 𓆓 — d͡ʒ (like English “j” in judge)
• 𓂧 — d
• 𓆑 — f
• 𓎼 — g (hard, as in go)
• 𓎛 — ḥ (breathy “h”)
• 𓉔 — h (regular “h”)
• 𓃭 — l / r (they used one sign for both “l” and “r”)
• 𓅱 — w
• 𓈖 — n
• 𓌳 — m
• 𓊪 — p
• 𓏏 — t
• 𓍿 — ṯ (like English “ch” in church)
• 𓈎 — q (deep k, pronounced far back in the throat)
• 𓋴 — s
• 𓐍 — ḫ (like German “Bach,” a harsher h-sound)
• 𓋴𓏭 — š (like English “sh” in ship)

📌 A couple of notes:
• Some sounds (like vowels a, e, o, u) weren’t written — Egyptians just implied them.
• That’s why we “reconstruct” words with vowels today (e.g. Kmt → Kemet).
• There are also biliterals (signs for two consonants, like pr = “house”) and triliterals (three consonants). Egyptians loved stacking them with determinatives to be super clear.

So with just these 24, you can already start spelling names like Cleopatra, Ra, Osiris, or Kemet.