Ancient Egyptian writing used over 2,000 hieroglyphic characters. Each hieroglyph represented a common object. Hieroglyphs could represent the sound of the object,or they could represent an idea associated with the object. Hieroglyphs were written in rows or columns without spaces between words.
Hieroglyphic writing is like a picture puzzle.
They 'spell out' names or anything which can't be represented by other characters. The alphabet characters are read as the sound of the object they represented. By replacing pairs of hieroglyph characters with a single hieroglyph, statements are simplified. These hieroglyphs are read as the sound of the object they represent. The meanings they imply help eliminate confusion by putting the writings they accompanied in proper context.