-Hello, my name is Victoria,
and I teach American sign language at TakeLessons.
Do you want to learn some of the best sign language
phrases for beginners?
After this lesson, you'll be able to make conversation more easily with few greetings,
icebreakers, and common questions to ask so keep watching
and don't forget to check out our free online ASL classes.
[music]
Here are some common greetings that we can sign in ASL.
There's a few that we can go through.
Number one is hello.
Our second one is going to be one that we use,
mainly just to get someone's attention.
Perhaps they're across the room from us
and they're not looking directly at us.
This word is, hey.
All it is is basically waving your hand.
Our third greeting is, what's up
Let's talk about some introduction phrases
that you can use when you meet someone who uses sign language.
First, my name is,
so we don't have a sign for the word,
is, so it's just going to be, my name,
my name.
You're taking the handshape of the letter H,
one is going directly on top of the other and tapped twice.
Name.
My name and then you fingerspell your name.
For example-
Another introductory phrase that you can use is,
nice to meet you.
The way we're going to learn this is, nice,
nice,
your dominant hand is on the top,
sliding across.
Nice and then meet you is going to be one entire sign.
One finger,
your dominant index finger is going to go close to you,
one directly in front of you.
This is representing you and the individual you're talking to.
You is going to move forward like you are meeting the person.
That's nice to meet you.
Our third phrase is going to be I am learning sign.
This is a great phrase to use in your introduction
so that whoever you're speaking to is aware that you're not deaf yourself
and that you are still learning
so they'll slow down and be patient with you and you're signing.
This is, I am learning sign.
I, pointing to yourself,
learn,
It's like you're taking information from a book
and putting it into your head
and then, sign.
I'm learning sign.
Now we're going to talk about some questions
you can ask when you're meeting someone.
First,
what's your name?
It's important to know
that since these are questions, our question words
are going to go at the end of our sentence.
Instead of what's your name, we're going to say,
"Your name what?" It'll look like this.
Your,
Flat palm towards the person you're talking to.
Name.
What,
Remember, that if you're asking a question,
you want to lean forward,
your eyebrows should come down
since you are expecting an actual response.
Now we're going to talk about, where are you from,
how to sign that.
You're going to point,
you,
from,
remember the moving finger is always going to be from your dominant hand.
This one is going to pull directly
from your non-dominant index finger so you, from, where.
All this is, is your index finger moving from side to side,
where.
You from
- where.
Where are you from?
Our next one is,
"How are you?" This is our exception to the rule
that all question words go at the end of your sentence.
Here, it's one fluid motion.
That's why it can be an exception.
"How are you?"
Both fists together,
your dominant hand moves out to you.
"How are you?"
Let's talk about how you can answer those questions.
We didn't talk about it earlier but, my name is,
again is my name and then fingers spelling your name.
If the question is, where are you from.
All you're going to do is say, me or I,
pointing to yourself
from
and then fingers spell the city or state you are going to answer with.
I'm from plus the fingerspelling.
If you are asked,
"How are you?"
A very common easy way to respond is,
"I'm fine."
Here's how we would do it in ASL.
All you're doing is you're making a five.
Your thumb is going to go in the center of your chest and tap twice,
"I'm fine."
Here are three really good signs to know.
If you want to show good manners while you're signing.
Number one is, please.
Just the flat hand again,
on your chest in a circle,
please.
Number two is, "Thank you."
You're going to make a front hand
but your fingers are going to stay connected.
Goes on your chin, goes forward.
Thank you.
Lastly,
"Excuse me."
All you're doing here is you're taking your non-dominant hand.
You're done at hand is going on top like an arch and sliding forward,
"Excuse me."
Let's talk about some phrases you might want to use to break
the ice in your conversation.
First, what is your favorite-
blank, color, movie et cetera.
Let's take the basic phrase, your favorite,
it's the middle finger on your chin.
Tap twice in the center.
Your favorite,
blank,
what.
Let's say, for example, we asking,
"What's your favorite movie?" It would look something like this.
Another great phrase to ask is,
"What do you like to do?"
We can say, you, pointing, like.
Your thumb and your mental finger
are going to start in the center of your chest,
pull out like you're pulling from your heart,
like,
what do.
It's like you're pushing with your thumb and index finger,
what do.
You like, what do.
Another great conversational phrase to know is,
"Where do you work?"
You
work
where.
Let's talk about three common questions
you may find yourself needing to ask.
The first one, "What time is it?"
What you can do here is you can point at your watch
or where your watch would be,
time.
If you're making the face like you're asking a question,
that's what time is it of it, or is to be really formal and say,
"Time what?"
Another good question is "Where's the bathroom?"
Again we're going to start with the world bathroom.
It's a T and you're going to shake it.
Bathroom,
where.
Bathroom where.
Our next one is really, really helpful.
How do I sign--
whatever the world is that you don't know how to sign.
What we do is we will fingerspell the word.
For example,
if you don't know how to sign "car," you will fingerspell,
C-A-R,
then say sign how.
Car, sign how.
Of course, you can use that with any word that you don't know how to sign.
One more phase that everyone should know
as a beginner is how to ask what a certain sign means.
When you sitting with a deaf person and you see a sign,
instead of asking of the fingerspelling
or instead of sitting there clueless,
a great thing to do is ask for the meaning.
What you'll do is you'll repeat the sign.
For example, if you see them sign this,
and you don't understand what that is,
what you'll do is you'll repeat
the sign and then say "meaning," "meaning.
It's a V and a flat palm, twist it.
Again, making sure your facial expression,
note that it is a question.
When you're saying goodbye,
here are some good signs and phrases to know.
First, goodbye which is me waving.
Goodbye.
"See you later" is another great one to know
and it's one used most commonly in the deaf community.
See, and then it moves into an L.
This is a deaf sign because on their own this is not mean see and later.
But together it's one whole phrase.
See later, see you later.
Our last one is going to be "take care."
You're going to make two Ks, dominant goes on top, tap twice.
Take care.
Can you think of any more common ASL phrases?
Leave a comment and let us know.
If you enjoyed this video,
consider subscribing so you can receive more helpful ASL lessons.
[music]