Basic phrases in sign language
By: Marta Cano and Claudia Esteve
➔ What is sign language?
Sign language is a manual communication system commonly used by people who are
deaf. It is made up of a series of gestures that combined have a global meaning. The
gestures or symbols in sign language are organized in a linguistic way. Each individual
gesture is called a sign. Each sign has three distinct parts: the handshape, the position of
the hands, and the movement of the hands
Just as common languages, sign language is not universal; people who are deaf from
different countries speak different sign languages. In fact, it usually happens that deaf
people from different parts of the world do not understand each other due to the
difference in their gestures.
American Sign Language (ASL) is the most commonly used sign language used by the
Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in the United States and around the world; and that is
the sign language we are going to teach you today.
➔ Abecedary:
This is the abecedary in sign language, as you can see, we are not going to explain it all,
however, it is useful to know since if you want to say your name, you have to spell it
using the abecedary signs. Our names in sign language would be… (demostración)
➔ Family:
Now we are going to explain to you how to say some family members in this language.
Mother: to say mother you have to put your hand in a straight way and put it in your
chin. Now you have to move it forwards and backwards.
Father: to say father, you have to put your hand in your forehead, in a straight way, and
move it forwards and backwards.
Sister: to say sister, you have to put one arm in a straight way and the other hand has to
be moving up and down, right on top of the other hand,but under the chin, and with
your two firsts fingers doing like a gun.
Brother: to say brother, you have to put your arms just like in the sister´s way, but
moving your arm up and down, above the chin.
Grandmother: to say grandmother, you have to put your hand in a straight way, with
your thumb in the chin and move it forwards doing a little wave.
Grandfather: to say grandfather you have to put your hand just like in grandmother´s
way, but in your forehead, and you have to do the same movement.
Maybe some of you have noticed that when we are saying female member, we do the
movement under our chins, and when we are talking about a male member, whe do the
movement above our chin, specifically in our foreheads.
➔ Signs to express things we usually say:
Now we will teach you funny signs or signs used in everyone’s day to day. These signs are
more commonly used among teenagers for obvious reasons. Some of them are:
“Wow”: you have to make a circle with your index finger and your thumb and keep the rest
of the fingers up. This expresses amazingness or expertise.
“Asshole”: even though this is definitely not a kind word, we consider it important to know
it since sometimes people get so on our nerves that we need to express it aloud, or in this
case, quietly. To say asshole you have to make a fist with your hand and point to the floor,
then, you open three fingers.
“Bathroom”: now this is a curious one. To say bathroom or toilet, we put our thumb
between our index and middle finger. We use it here as part of a game where we steal
someone else’s nose. However if a deaf american native saw as he or she would think that
we are talking about bathrooms.
“What are you doing”: we cross our index and thumb as if making a small heart. What is
curious about this gesture is that in k-pop music they use it to say I love you.
“Equality”: here we put our fingers in a 90 degree angle to express that two things are
equal.
➔ Basic words.
We are not going to explain all of the words, just some of them.
Hello: to say hello, you have to put your hand, in a straight way and with your thumb
folded, in your forhead, as if you were going to do the military greeting, and do the same
movement.
Goodbye: to say goodbye, you have to open and close your hand. and always keep your
thumb folded.
Please. to say please you have to put your hand in the opposite side of your chest.
Thank you: to say thank you, you have to say the same movement as a kiss, but instead of
putting your hand in your lips, you have to put it in your chin.
Yes:to say yes, you have to close your hand into a fist and move it up and down.
➔ Time signs:
Day: to say ¨day¨you have to put both armas, one on top of the other, just like this and
move the one, which is on the top, and move it up and down.
Week: to say¨week¨you have to put one hand in a straight way, and the other close in a fist,
like this,and move it as if you were striking a match
Today: to say¨today¨you have to put both hands in a ¨chill¨way, as if you were going to say
¨de chill¨ and move them up and down.
➔ Daily life signs:
Wow: to say wow you have to put this fingers, making a circle.
Bathroom: to say bathroom you have to catch your thumb between this two fingers.
Equality: to say equality you have to put your hand like this
Prude: to say prude you have to open your hand but putting this finger down
➔ Questions signs:
Who: to say who you have to put your finger next to your mouth and move it up and down,
like this
What: to say what you have to put both hands in a straight way, and move them from side
to side, like this
When: to say when you have to make a circle with your finger and end it in the other finger,
like this
Where: to say where you have to move your finger from side to side
Why: to say why you have to move this finger forwards and backwards
Which: to say which you have to put your hands into a fist, but putting your thumb in a
straight way and move one up and one down
How: to say how you have to put your hands in a moon way, and move both up and down.
How to say I love you:
This one is one of our favorites. You may not know it but among American natives when
they type into their phone or chat they usually use abbreviations such as omg for oh my
god, or Idk for I don't know… For I love you the abbreviation is Ily as it represents the capital
letters of I Love You. So, the gesture for this phrase is a combination of the abecedary signs
of I, L and Y.
