Hey Signers, welcome to Learn How to Sign. I'm so excited for you to see our new space.
My husband is a video director and whenever their offices are closed we get free reign.
It really pays to be married to a video director. Today we're doing the first
of a series of videos where we tackle 150 signs that we feel are essential
Wait, what? I know 150 signs
are a lot of words but I promise you can do it. We're breaking down these videos into six bite
size videos where you will spend a good amount of time with each word by the end of the series you
should be able to carry on a basic conversation with a deaf person. How cool is that? Cool-Cool.
In this video we're specifically going to focus on common signs and descriptions.
Be sure to stick around to the end of the video because we have some bonus content where you'll
learn how to use these common signs in sentences. Be sure to like subscribe and be notified.
Also check out our website learnhowtosign.org which is a great resource to help you learn
American Sign Language. So let's learn how to sign 150 essential signs in ASL.
First we are going to learn some common signs and common signs are just that it's signs that
you will see and use in everyday conversation with the deaf person so let's get started.
DON'T-WANT DON'T-WANT You flick your hands down
because you don't want it. DON'T-WANT
FINISH or DONE And also when you sign it you go "FISH"
FINISH FORGET FORGET
It's like the thought that was there just got wiped away.
FORGET GO GO
Your fingers move forward like you're going somewhere.
GO HELLO HELLO
You've got your hand right up here at your forehead and it's coming out.
HELLO HELP HELP
The old sign used to be help like somebody was
helping somebody across the street and then it changed into....
HELP HOW-ARE YOU HOW-ARE YOU
You're making the sign how and you're pointing to somebody with your eyebrows down.
HOW-ARE YOU HOW-ARE YOU LIKE LIKE
You're using your thumb and your middle finger and pulling it out from your body.
LIKE MORE MORE
Their flat o hands touching together. MORE
NEED NEED You're doing an
x hand and bouncing it a couple times need.
NICE TO-MEET YOU NICE TO-MEET YOU The sign nice with your people meeting each other
and pointing to the person. NICE TO-MEET YOU
NO NO It's like the letter n and o put together.
NO NOT DON'T or DOESN'T
Your thumb is coming out from the bottom of your chin.
NOT DON'T or DOESN'T PLEASE PLEASE
It's a flat hand making a circle on your chest. PLEASE
RIGHT as in CORRECT Your index fingers
go right on top of each other. RIGHT
THANK-YOU THANK-YOU Your hand is coming out from your chin.
THANK-YOU WANT WANT
You have bent five hands bringing it in towards
yourself. WANT
WRONG WRONG A y hand is coming up to your chin.
WRONG YES YES
Your hand is representing your head nodding. YES
Keep practicing and practice these every day and you'll be signing in no time. Now we're
going to learn how to sign descriptions. These are just signs that we use to describe people
and things. Now when signing about descriptions it's extremely important to use body language
and facial expression when you're signing. It may feel a little awkward but this is so
important to show the intensity of the sign and even the meaning. For example, we have the sign
SCARED but if we don't use any facial expression it doesn't mean anything but when we put facial
expression with it it's showing the intensity of how scared you are. So you could be or
showing the difference of SCARED or TERRIFIED. So let's learn how to sign descriptions.
BAD BAD It's the opposite of good just flips around.
BAD BUSY
BUSY Now if you're really busy you go........to
show you're really busy. BUSY
FINE FINE Your five hand
is coming right up to your chest. FINE
GOOD or WELL Your dominant hand is coming from your
chin down to your non-dominant. GOOD or WELL
HAPPY HAPPY Your hands are flat and they're on your chest
moving up. HAPPY
SAD SAD Your hands are bringing your sadness down.
SAD SAME SAME
This y hand is showing that something's the same same or same here.
SAME SO-SO SO-S
Your hand is flipping back and forth. SO-SO
Now we are going to learn some basic sentences in ASL structure that you can use in conversation.
Before we begin you need to know that there is a difference between English structure and ASL
structure. If I was going to say "Are you ready?", I would sign YOU READY YOU so "YOU READY YOU?"
How are you? How
and you and whenever you do it make sure your eyebrows go down when you sign it.
I'm happy. ME HAPPY ME
When you're signing it you're going to point to yourself say what you are and then point
back to yourself again what's called a closing signal.
Hello, nice to meet you.
The hello sign and then nice with your people meaning and point to the person.
I need help. I NEE HELP I
You're pointing to yourself saying that you need help and then ending it with that closing signal.
Yeah, same here. YES SAME
The sign yes with that ME-TOO sign.
You finished? YOU FINISHED YOU
You're pointing to the person signing finished
and ending with you and your eyebrows up because you're asking a question.
Okay so the tornado siren's going off so why don't we learn about that.
TORNADO and it's like the sign BELL so or TORNADO WARNING.
TORNADO BELL TORNADO WARNING
Just another one that you can learn today. Hopefully you learned something today. I
encourage you to keep at it repetition goes a long way when you're learning a new language. Practice
with your friends and family. Meet up with deaf people in your community. There are often deaf
meetups that exist to help build community, not just among deaf people but also hearing people
that are wanting to learn and connect. We're making videos just like this every week so be
sure to subscribe if you haven't already. Until next time keep learning how to sign.