american sign language lessons

Before you start

ASL is not English with your hands. It has its own grammar, and it puts meaning in movement, in where a sign is made, and in your face. HELLO is a salute that sweeps away from your forehead — where it starts is part of the sign.

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Pronouns in ASL are pointing, and pointing is grammar rather than rudeness. Point at your chest for ME, at the person for YOU. This is the whole pronoun system, and you already own it.

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Fingerspelling is for names and for words ASL has no sign for. It is a small corner of the language, not the language itself — but it is the corner you need to introduce yourself.

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NAME and NICE both use two hands doing the same thing at once. When both hands share a handshape in ASL, they almost always move together.

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No new signs here. Just everything you have met so far, shuffled.

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These two signs matter more than any noun you will learn this month. A beginner who can ask for AGAIN and SLOW can hold a conversation with a fluent signer. One who cannot will freeze.

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YES is a fist nodding like a head. NO is two fingers snapping shut. Both are movements — hold either one still and you have signed a letter instead of a word.

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ASL marks questions with your face, not your word order. Eyebrows down for what, where, who, why. Eyebrows up for yes-or-no questions. Leave your face blank and a question reads as a statement.

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No new signs here. Just everything you have met so far, shuffled.

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ASL counts three with the thumb, index and middle — not the three fingers most hearing people put up. It catches nearly everyone out once.

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Six through nine are the thumb meeting a different fingertip each time. Pinky is six, and it walks inward from there.

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J moves. Its handshape is the letter I, and the pinky then traces the letter in the air — exactly like writing a lowercase j.

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ASL reuses handshapes constantly. W is 6, F is 9, O is 0. Noticing the overlap is what turns twenty-six separate letters into a much smaller set of shapes.

Before you start

No new signs here. Just everything you have met so far, shuffled.

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M, N and T are all a fist with the thumb tucked somewhere different: under three fingers, under two, or between the index and middle. They are the letters fluent signers spell fastest and beginners read slowest.

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R, U and V are the same two fingers in three arrangements: crossed, together, apart. The difference is a couple of centimetres and it changes the letter.

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Fluent fingerspelling is read as a shape, not letter by letter. That only comes from volume, which is what this unit is.

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No new signs here. Just everything you have met so far, shuffled.

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PLEASE and SORRY are the same circle on your chest with a different handshape — flat for please, a fist for sorry. Location does a lot of work in ASL.

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Signs about eating and drinking happen at your mouth. That is not decoration — move the same handshape to your forehead and it means something else entirely.

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DEAF is signed near the ear and then the mouth. Deaf people are the reason this language exists; the community, not the vocabulary, is what fluency actually requires.

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Blue, green, yellow and purple are initialised: the handshape is the first letter of the English word, shaken. Whole corners of ASL vocabulary are built this way — which is a real trace of English on the language.

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Red, black and white point at something instead. Red traces your lips, black crosses your forehead. Older signs tend to describe; newer ones tend to borrow a letter.

Before you start

No new signs here. Just everything you have met so far, shuffled.

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MOTHER and FATHER are the same open hand in two places — chin for her, forehead for him. That pattern runs through a whole class of kinship signs in ASL.

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NOW is both Y hands dropping once. TODAY is the same sign twice — which only makes sense once you know what a single drop means.

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TOMORROW arcs forward from the cheek; YESTERDAY arcs back. Many signers picture time running through the body — behind you is the past, in front is the future.

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WANT pulls open hands toward you and closes them into claws. NEED is a single bent X — context and your face do the rest of the nuance.

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WHO completes the question set next to WHAT and WHERE. The eyebrows go down for all three — your face is doing grammar the camera cannot see yet.

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No new signs here. Just everything you have met so far, shuffled.

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BOY and GIRL are the same lesson as MOTHER and FATHER: the handshape is almost the same, and the height is the whole word. Sign girl at your forehead and the app will fail you — on purpose.

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WHAT, WHERE and WHO are already in the course. WHY starts at the forehead and finishes as a Y; HOW rolls both hands forward; WHEN circles one finger around the other.

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Both signs live at the forehead. KNOW is a flat hand; THINK is one index finger — same zone, different shape.

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HAPPY circles both hands at your chest. SAD drags them down your face — your expression carries a lot of the meaning, which the camera cannot see yet.

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EAT, DRINK and WATER came earlier. APPLE knuckles your cheek; MILK squeezes a C hand shut; HUNGRY slides down your chest; COOKIE cuts shapes out of your palm.

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No new signs here. Just everything you have met so far, shuffled.

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HOME is already in the course — on your cheek. HOUSE is the building itself: flat hands trace roof and walls. CHAIR is the seat you sit on.

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STORE pivots both flattened O hands forward, as if holding a sheet of paper. CAT starts as an open F at your cheek and pulls out like whiskers.

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CAN drops both S fists downward. SLEEP draws a flat O down toward your chin; BATHROOM shakes a T hand — the letter marks toilet, not bathroom-with-a-bathtub.

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BOOK opens both flat palms like pages. PAPER taps one palm with the other. READ slides two fingertips across a palm; WRITE scribbles an index finger across it.

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No new signs here. Just everything you have met so far, shuffled.

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SEE and LOOK share a V hand — palm in for see, palm out for look. HEAR taps your ear; DEAF already taught ear and mouth together.

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MONEY smacks a flattened O onto your palm. BUY slides it forward; PAY flicks an index finger off the palm — all two-handed, like STORE.

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RAIN wiggles open hands downward. SUN circles a flattened O at your forehead. HOT pulls a claw from your mouth; COLD shakes both fists as if shivering.

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SHIRT pinches fabric at your chest with both hands — one hand can mean volunteer. SHOES taps two S fists together.

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No new signs here. Just everything you have met so far, shuffled.

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WAIT wiggles open fingers with both hands raised to the side. WITH presses two A hands together — palms facing, not the tapped fists of SHOES.

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BIG pulls bent L hands apart; SMALL snaps flat palms together. A bigger pull means a bigger thing.

Before you start

No new signs here. Just everything you have met so far, shuffled.

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PHONE is a Y hand at your ear — the same handshape as the letter Y, parked where you would hold a handset. HEAR uses one index finger; the handshape is the whole difference.

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WRONG twists a Y hand at the chin — not WHO, which wiggles only the index. RIGHT (correct) is skipped: index-on-palm contact does not clear the bar in a still frame without faking it.

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BED presses both flat palms together beside your head. HOME is one flat hand on the cheek — two hands together is the whole sign.

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BAD starts at the lips with a flat hand and pulls away. HOT uses a claw at the mouth — flat fingers, not bent ones.

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No new signs here. Just everything you have met so far, shuffled.

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This is the unit that turns a vocabulary into a language. Everything up to here was words; this is how they go together.

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ASL verbs never change for tense. There is nothing to memorise here — which is the point.

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The first thing that makes counting sound native rather than translated.

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The same trick as pointing, applied to lists — and the fastest way to stop repeating yourself.

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A language is a community before it is a vocabulary. This is the part no camera can grade.

Before you start

No new signs here. Just everything you have met so far, shuffled.