Have you ever wanted to become fluent in ASL and think, where do I begin? Do I start with names? Fingerspelling? Places? Animals? The weather?… feeling stressed and overwhelmed yet? Well stress no more, you found the right place to start; basic ASL signs. What signs are we talking here? They are a combination of a few simple signs that can help you to start a basic conversation. We will discuss what they are and how they can be used as you begin learning to sign and communicate in ASL.
We will first begin with greetings. There are many basic ASL signs you can use when first signing to someone. Some basic signs are things such as:
- Hello, my name …
- Nice to meet you
- How are you?
You can learn some of these useful phrases in this video:
A good tip is to also state from the beginning of the conversation that you are learning ASL. You can sign, “I am learning sign language” or “I am an ASL student.” This allows the other person to identify your level of fluency. As the conversation progresses, you may use signs like “Sign again,” “Sign slow please,” and “understand/do not understand.” At this point, we have about 15 basic signs under our belt that can help us when greeting in ASL…but wait there is more.
Questions in ASL are extremely helpful. We call these the “Wh-” questions, which are the following:
- What?
- Where?
- Why?
- When?
- Who?
- Which?
- How?
- How many/much?
You can learn some of these questions in this video:
These question words function the same way we use them in English. However, there is different grammar needed when asking questions in ASL. In ASL we always place the above question words at the end of our question sentences. For example, asking “What is your name?” would be signed as “YOUR NAME WHAT?” Or “Where do you learn sign?” would be signed as “YOU LEARN SIGN WHERE?” Now you are not just prepared to start a conversation but continue it by using and understanding questions. Add these 8 vocabulary words to the previous 15 and we are up to 23 signs!
For the next group of basic ASL signs we have everyday locations. For example, some of the common places we tend to speak about are school or work. We spend the day at our house/home. We go to the store, doctor’s office, and the movie theatre. Perhaps the post office or the gym. Become familiar with the locations most important to you and your daily routines. Now we find ourselves with an additional 10 signs – 33 in total up to now!
What about family signs? Why not include these into your ASL vocabulary starter kit? For example, mother/father, son/daughter, children, brother/sister, grandfather/grandmother, cousin, and aunt/uncle. Memorizing these signs is not too difficult. One factor that helps us with that is when signing male signs, father/son/brother etc., we do so towards the upper part of your head or right next to it. For female, (mother/daughter/sister etc.) the sign is right next to the lower part of your head. This trick will help you to distinguish the signs easier both when you’re signing or when you’re watching another person sign to you.
Something that can also be of great help is signing colors. There are many varieties and shades; well over 10 million. Thankfully, they do not all have a sign. Otherwise, we would be stuck here for an eternity. However, we do have signs for the basic colors. These are:
- Black
- White
- Grey
- Brown
- Blue
- Green
- Yellow
- Red
- Purple
- Orange
- Pink
Learn some of these colors in this helpful video:
Why are these helpful to us as we sign and communicate in ASL? You are now able to describe physical traits. How cool is that!
Another important group of words that you should definitely consider learning early on are basic verbs. For instance, have, need, want/don’t want, like/don’t like, know/don’t know, and make. Verbs like these are used all day, every day. There is no doubt that at some point in your conversation you will be needing one or more of these verbs. For instance, when talking about your family, you will probably say something like, “I have 1 brother and 2 sisters.” Or maybe you want to express how much you like learning sign and how you want to learn more! The list can go on and on. The point is, these verbs are absolutely essential in basic conversations.
You can boost your verbs vocabulary with this helpful video:
These were just some of the signs that you can consider adding to your basic ASL signs vocabulary. If you kept track, we discussed about 65 signs in total. Maybe some of you have learned some of these already. Way to go! Now be sure to learn and use the rest in your conversations. I am positive they will help your conversations to be more effective and allow you to express yourself better. Keep at it, keep learning, and keep growing.
Ariel Lara