One word sign language

First time? Quick how-to.

This visual quick how-to guide shows you how to search a word, for example «handspeak».

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Are you a Deaf artist, author, traveler, etc. etc.?

Some of the word entries in the ASL dictionary feature Deaf stories or anecdotes, arts, photographs, quotes, etc. to educate and to inspire, and to be preserved in Deaf/ASL history, and to expose and recognize Deaf works, talents, experiences, joys and pains, and successes.

If you’re a Deaf artist, book author, or creative and would like your work to be considered for a possible mention on this website/webapp, introduce yourself and your works. Are you a Deaf mother/father, traveler, politician, teacher, etc. etc. and have an inspirational story, anecdote, or bragging rights to share — tiny or big doesn’t matter, you’re welcome to email it. Codas are also welcome.

Hearing ASL student, who might have stories or anecdotes, also are welcome to share.

ASL to English reverse dictionary

Don’t know what a sign mean? Search ASL to English reverse dictionary to find what an ASL sign means.

Vocabulary building

To start with the First 100 ASL signs for beginners, and continue with the Second 100 ASL signs, and further with the Third 100 ASL signs.

Language Building

Learning ASL words does not equate with learning the language. Learn the language beyond sign language words.

Contextual meaning: Some ASL signs in the dictionary may not mean the same in different contexts and/or ASL sentences. A meaning of a word or phrase can change in sentences and contexts. You will see some examples in video sentences.

Grammar: Many ASL words, especially verbs, in the dictionary are a «base»; be aware that many of them can be grammatically inflected within ASL sentences. Some entries have sentence examples.

Sign production (pronunciation): A change or modification of one of the parameters of the sign, such as handshape, movement, palm orientation, location, and non-manual signals (e.g. facial expressions) can change a meaning or a subtle variety of meaning. Or mispronunciation.

Variation: Some ASL signs have regional (and generational) variations across North America. Some common variations are included as much as possible, but for specifically local variations, interact with your local community to learn their local variations.

Fingerspelling: When there is no word in one language, borrowing is a loanword from another language. In sign language, manual alphabet is used to represent a word of the spoken/written language.

American Sign Language (ASL) is very much alive and indefinitely constructable as any spoken language. The best way to use ASL right is to immerse in daily language interactions and conversations with Ameslan/Deaf people (or ASLians).

For non-deaf or hard of hearing people, it is often a surprise to learn that there is more than a single sign language.

Today, there are anywhere up to 300 different types of sign language used around the world. Some are only used locally. Others are used by millions of people.

Most sign languages don’t aim to directly translate spoken words into signs you make with your hands either. Each is a true language, with its own vocabulary, grammar and syntax – often unrelated to those of oral languages spoken in the same region.

And yes, the position of the hands is important. Yet so are eyebrow position, eye position, body movement and much more besides. A little like tones in oral languages, their importance and the way they are used also vary between different sign languages.

It only takes a moment’s thought to realise that, with so much variation in oral forms of expression, wouldn’t it actually be more surprising if there was only one universal sign language?

The development of sign languages

Questions as to why there isn’t a single universal sign language only really make sense if you are picturing sign languages as a kind of helper aid “gifted” by hearing people to the deaf or hard of hearing.

However, in the real world, sign languages – almost universally – develop naturally among deaf or hard of hearing people and communities.

Even Charles Michel de l’Épée, often credited as being the “inventor” of one of the key ancestors of many modern sign languages – French Sign Language – actually overheard two deaf people using it first and then learned from them.

The origins of sign languages

Many of the sign languages spoken around the world today have their origins in:

1. British Sign Language: the British manual alphabet reached a format which would be familiar to many signers today as early as 1720. However, manual alphabets had been in use in daily British life even by many hearing people for centuries previously – at least as early as 1570. This then spread through the British Commonwealth and beyond in the 19th century.
2. French Sign Language: developed in the 1700s, French Sign Language was the root of American Sign Language and many other European sign languages.
3. Unique origins: yet many others – including Chinese, Japanese, Indo-Pakistani and Levantine Arabic sign languages – have their own unique origins completely unrelated to French or British roots.

But by 1880, different thoughts began to take shape. In that year, plans were announced at the Second International Congress of Education of the Deaf in Milan to reduce and eventually remove sign language from classrooms in favour of lip reading and other oral-based methods.

Known as oralism, these rules – which largely prioritised the convenience of hearing people – remained essentially in effect until the 1970s.

Today, however, the various sign languages naturally developed around the world are increasingly recognised as official languages. They are the preferred method of communication for many millions of deaf and hard of hearing people worldwide.

How do sign languages compare with written or spoken languages?

Just like written or spoken languages, sign languages have their own sentence structures, grammatical organisation and vocabulary. The way the hands are positioned in relation to the body can be almost important as the sign itself, for instance.

But signed languages don’t depend on the spoken or written languages of the same region. Nor do they usually mirror or represent them.

They even have some features which many spoken languages do not. For example, some signed languages have rules for indicating a question only has a yes or no answer.

Sign languages usually develop within deaf communities. Thus, they can be quite separate from the local oral language. The usual example given is that while American English and British English are largely identical, American Sign Language and British Sign Language have many differences.

However, spoken languages and signed languages do come into contact all the time. This means that oral languages do often have some influence on signed languages.

The different types of sign languages used around the world

If you are intending to do business with or advertise your products to deaf or hard of hearing people around the world, it is important to understand the type of sign language they prefer to use.

You can easily set up sign language interpreting services between a given oral language and a given signed language – as long as you know the specific language barrier you want to bridge the gap between.

Some of the most common sign languages in the world include:

British Sign Language, Auslan and New Zealand Sign Language (BANZSL)

The way in which British Sign Language (BSL), Australian Sign Language (Auslan) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) relate to each other is illustrative of the dynamic differences between even closely related signed languages.

British Sign Language, codified in British schools for the deaf in the 1700s, spread around the world as the British Empire and Commonwealth did. This included reaching both Australia and New Zealand.

Thus, New Zealand Sign Language and Auslan, Australian Sign Language, share the same manual alphabet, grammar and much of the same lexicon (that is to say the same signs) as BSL. So much so that a single phrase – BANZSL – was coined to represent them as a single language with three dialects.

1) Differences between dialects

But even within BANZSL, all three dialects of which evolved from the same roots, there are differences.

For example, a key difference between New Zealand Sign Language and the other dialects is that NZSL includes signs for Māori words. It is also heavily influenced by its Auslan roots.

Auslan is itself influenced by Irish Sign Language (which in turn, derives from a French Sign Language root).

2) Differences within dialects

Plus, within each of these dialects, there are other dialects, variants and even what might be considered accents.

Within Auslan, for instance, some dialects might include features taken from Indigenous Australian sign languages which are completely unrelated to Auslan.

Other variants are regional. Certain signs used by BSL speakers in Scotland are unlikely to be understood by BSL speakers in southern England, for instance.

Another example is the city of Manchester in England, whose BSL-speaking population often use their own signed numbering system.

3) Differences within regions

Despite the implications of the names, languages such as British Sign Language or Australian Sign Language are also not the only signed languages used in Britain or Australia.

Many Indigenous Australian groups have their own sign languages. Within the UK, while around 145 000 people have BSL as their first or preferred language, others prefer different ways of communicating.

For example, Sign-Supported English (SSE) is a signed language which uses many of the same signs as BSL but which is designed to be used in support of spoken English. Thus, it tends to follow the same grammatical rules as the oral language instead of those of BSL.

French Sign Language (LSF)

French Sign Language (LSF – Langue des Signes Française) is another origin point for many of the world’s most-used sign languages. It arose amongst the deaf community in Paris and was codified by Charles Michel de l’Épée in the 1770s.

Although de l’Epee added a whole host of extra and often overly complex rules to the existing system, he did at least popularise the idea that sign languages were actual languages – to the point they were accepted by educators up until the rise of oralism.

Today, LSF is spoken by around 100 000 people in France as their first or preferred language. It has also had a significant impact on the development of ASL, Irish Sign Language and Russian Sign Language among many others.

However, again, it would be a mistake to assume that French Sign Language is simply used everywhere French is spoken. Many French-speaking regions have their own sign languages, including:

• Canada: has LSQ (la Langue des Signes Québécois), also referred to as Quebec Sign Language or French Canadian Sign Language, in its francophone regions and ASL (American Sign Language) in its anglophone parts.
• Belgium: has Flemish Belgian Sign Language and French Belgian Sign Language.

There are also numerous regional dialects even within France. These include Southern French Language, also known as Marseilles Sign Language.

American Sign Language (ASL)

American Sign Language borrows a large number of its grammatical laws from LSF, French Sign Language. But it combines them with local signs first used in America.

Today, anywhere from 250 000 to 500 000 use ASL as their preferred or first language. This is because, as well as being widely used by deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States, the language is also used in:

• English-speaking parts of Canada
• Parts of West Africa
• Parts of South-East Asia

Irish Sign Language (ISL)

Irish Sign Language also derives from LSF, French Sign Language. There are certainly influences from the BSL spoken in nearby regions, but ISL remains its own language.

Somewhere around 5000 deaf and hard of hearing people in the Republic of Ireland, as well as some in Northern Ireland, have ISL as their first or preferred language

A dialect difference almost unique to ISL is that which once existed between male and female ISL speakers. This came about through deaf or hard of hearing Irish Catholic students who leaned in schools which operated on lines of gender segregation.

These differences are almost entirely absent from modern ISL. Yet they are one more illustration of the way signed languages can develop in different ways among different groups from the same root.

Japanese Sign Language (JSL)

It has been said that Japanese Sign Language (Nihon Shuwa, 日本手話) reflects oral Japanese more closely than British Sign Language or American Sign Language reflect spoken English.

Speakers of JSL often mouth the way Japanese characters are spoken orally to make it clear which sign they are using. This is an important distinction from languages like ASL or BSL, where gestures and facial expressions are often more important.

Somewhere around 60 000 of the 300 000 deaf or hard of hearing people in Japan use JSL and there are several regional dialects. Many of the 200 000 or more others use:

• Taiou Shuwa: Sign-Supported Speech which works in something of the same manner as Sign-Supported English.
• Chuukan Shuwa: contact sign language. These languages include both oral and manual parts. The “contact” refers to the way they develop in the space where manual and oral languages come into contact.

Chinese Sign Language (CSL or ZGS)

Chinese Sign Language (CSL, written as 中国手语 in simplified Chinese and 中國手語 in traditional Chinese) is sometimes abbreviated as ZGS because of the Hanyu Pinyin romanised name of the language, Zhōngguó Shǒuyǔ.

The History of Chinese Sign Language

Although in recent years Chinese Sign Language has started to become more accepted in China, it remains unknown how many deaf or hard of hearing in the country actually use or prefer it.

This is largely because, up until very recently, many deaf Chinese children were taught in special schools using an oralist approach. This practice was strictly encouraged for the last half-century or more.

However, throughout the time when the oralist approach was the only standard in Chinese education for the deaf, CSL was still spread through smaller schools and workshops in various communities.

Today, there are around 20 million deaf or hard of hearing people in China. It’s estimated that around 1 in 20 or possibly more use CSL.

Chinese Sign Language – a unique language

Chinese Sign Language is a language isolate, meaning it is a natural language which has no other antecedents.

The language does have some parallels with oral Chinese. For example, there are two different signs for “older brother” and “younger brother”. This mirrors the fact that there are distinct words for each in oral Chinese too, instead of a generic word for “brother”.

CSL also includes pictorial representations as part of the language. This includes gesturing the use of chopsticks as the sign for eat.

Is there a universal sign language?

Strictly speaking, yes. International Sign – sometimes referred to as Gestuno, International Sign Pidgin or International Gesture – is a theoretically universal sign language used at the Deaflympics and other international deaf events.

That said, International Sign has been criticised for drawing heavily from European and North American sign languages at the possible expense of deaf and hard of hearing people from other parts of the world.

International Sign also may not, strictly speaking, meet the requirements for being counted a true language. It has recently been argued that International Sign is more like a complex pidgin – a term often used to describe a somewhat simplified form of communication developed between groups which speak different languages – rather than a complete language in and of itself.

International Sign Language Day

International Sign Language Day takes place every year on September 23rd. If nothing else this year, it’s worth thinking a little about how signed communication really works.

The differences between the sign languages spoken around the world are just as diverse and intriguing as those between spoken languages.

Do you need to set up sign language interpreting for your physical or virtual event, appointment or business meeting?

Asian Absolute works with individuals and businesses in every industry to bridge language gaps both spoken and signed.

Let’s talk. Get a free quote with zero obligation or more information today.

Text to ASL Generator Tool

American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language. It is the primary sign language used by the deaf and people with hearing impairment in the USA and Canada.

American Sign Language is one of the most popular sign languages around the world. Although it contains the same alphabets as English, it is not a subset of the English language. Sentence formation or the sequence of words in a sentence is different in ASL as compared to English because of its unique grammar rules. ASL is considered to be a descendant of French Sign Language that is also influenced by Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language and some other local sign languages. ASL uses the one-hand fingerspelling method for the English Alphabet.

This WeCapable Tool easily converts English text into sign language symbols. This tool will be very useful for both teaching and learning American sign language.

Translation of text to sign language is also be given as a task during sign language study session. This tool can easily produce the correct answers and because the visual stays on screen, students can follow the hand movements at their own pace.

We have compiled a great collection of videos showing the top 150 basic ASL sign language words.

These are the words that you should learn first. Learning the signs for these ASL sign language words is a great way to build a basic vocabulary foundation before learning full American Sign Language. These 150 words were chosen by finding the most important words learned in our ASL 1 course. These are the words that students learn first in the class and are therefore extremely useful to learn–especially if you plan to take an ASL class in the future.

These top 150 words have been organized into 11 categories: Common, Animals, Colors, Descriptions, Family, Food, Home, People, Questions, School, and Time. This should make them easy to find and easier to learn. The more important categories are listed toward the top. These are the basic ASL sign language words that you will find yourself using the most often. The categories toward the bottom are best for enriching basic conversations. Keep in mind that this list is just a starter and contains only the most common basic signs used in American Sign Language.

And, of course, there is more to American Sign Language than just memorizing vocabulary. ASL has its own grammar, syntax, culture, and history! Don’t forget to check out our free American Sign Language online classes where you can learn sign language and not just the basic sign language words!

• 🏁 First Signs
• 🐴 Animals
• 👶 Baby Sign Language
• 🎨 Colors
• 🍔 Food and Drinks
• 👪 Friends and Family
• 🏠 House and Home
• 👥 People
• 👕 Descriptions and Clothing
• ❓ Questions
• ❄️ Seasons and Holidays
• 📚 School and Education
• 🕑 Time
• ☀️ Weather

> Want to learn more? Find out which Start ASL course is right for you >

Basic Sign Language (ASL) Grammar Explanations

The Five Elements

Just like how we see English words as the arrangement of letters, there are five basic sign language elements that make up each sign. The five elements are: handshape, movement, palm orientation, location, and facial expression. American Sign Language is a very expressive language, and understanding these elements will give you a better understanding of how signs are made and what makes them different.

Your Dominant Hand

You have a dominant and non-dominant hand. If you are right-handed, your right hand is your dominant hand. If you are left-handed, your left hand is your dominant hand. If you are ambidextrous, choose one hand to use as your dominant hand, and stick with it.

There are three types of signs when it comes to what hand you will use:

• One-handed signs: Uses only your dominant hand
• Two-handed symmetrical signs: Uses both your dominant and non-dominant hand where they both move the same way
• Two-handed non-symmetrical signs: Uses both your dominant and non-dominant hand where the dominant hand moves while the non-dominant hand remains stationary

Your non-dominant hand will never move unless your dominant hand is moving the same way. This is very important for when you graduate from basic sign language into more complex signing. You don’t want to get confused!

Basic Handshapes

These are a few basic sign language handshapes that are used to form many signs. Practice forming these handshapes–you will find them very helpful for learning ASL vocabulary.

• Open hand: Your hand is flat and your fingers are spread apart (5 hand)
• Flat hand: Your hand is flat and your fingers and thumb are touching
• Curved hand: Your hand is curved and your fingers and thumb are touching
• Bent hand: Your hand is bent at the knuckles and your fingers and thumb are touching and held straight
• Clawed hand: Your hand is curved and your fingers are separated
• And hand: Your hand is formed so that all of your fingertips are touching
• One hand: Your index finger is up with your palm facing forward

Your Signing Area

Your signing area is the space in front of your body from the top of your head down to your waist and from shoulder to shoulder. Most signs are made in this space during everyday conversation. Your signs should not extend beyond this area unless you are signing for a huge audience (where you should sign larger and slower).

Direction

Basic sign language direction is very important when it comes to the meaning of signs. A sign can have one meaning when it moves one way and another meaning when it moves the other way. For example, the signs for IN and OUT have different directions and different meanings.

Direction can also provide information about the subject and the object of a sentence in basic sign language. You can move the sign GIVE away from you to signify that you are giving something to someone. You can move the sign GIVE from one person to another to signify that the first person is giving something to the second person. You can do this with many signs, such as: TELL, ASK, and SEND.

Tense

In English, words are spelled differently to indicate the past, present, and future. In basic sign language, you use your body to indicate tense. Signs for the present are signed in front of your body (TODAY and NOW), signs for past are signed moving backward (BEFORE and YESTERDAY), and signs for the future are signed moving forward (TOMORROW and SOMEDAY).

Intensity

In English, intensity is usually shown by adding words. In ASL, intensity is shown by varying the intensity or speed with which a sign is made or by incorporating facial expression.

For example: the sign for WALK can be made quickly or slowly to indicate how the person is walking, LIGHT BLUE is signed with a slight wrist turning motion, and SMART becomes BRILLIANT and PRETTY becomes BEAUTIFUL when signs are exaggerated.

Iconic Signs

When signs look like the word they are representing, these are said to be iconic signs. These signs can often be recognized by people who don’t know basic sign language. The sign for ELEPHANT is signed like an elephant’s trunk. The sign for SWIMMING looks like a breast stroke. There are many signs like this.

Some signs seem to be arbitrary when you first see them. When you look at the root, though, some signs becomes more iconic. The sign for HOME is made by placing your hand on your lips, then on your head. This represents where someone eats and sleeps.

Initialized Signs

An initialized sign is one that has the handshape of the first letter of the word. You will come across many of these signs in basic sign language and some are very helpful for knowing the specificity of the sign. For example, the signs for DOCTOR and NURSE look the same except that DOCTOR is signed with a “D” handshape and NURSE is signed with an “N” handshape.

The Person Ending

To show a person’s occupation or nationality, you would add the person-ending sign after the occupation or nationality. For example, you would sign TEACH + person-ending for the sign TEACHER. You could also sign AMERICA + person-ending for the sign AMERICAN. To make the person-ending, point both of your flat hands forward in front of your chest with your palms facing each other. Then, move both of your hands down at the same time.

Gender

Location is what shows you the gender of some signs. Most male signs are formed on or near the forehead while most female signs are formed on or near the cheek or chin. For example, FATHER is signed by touching the tip of your thumb to your head, while MOTHER is signed by touching the tip of your thumb to your chin.

Plurals and Possessives

To form plurals, you have a few different options:

• The most common way is to repeat the sign several times on either side of your body. Repeating the sign for CAT would mean “multiple cats.”
• You can also add a number or sign that indicates quantity after the sign. You can sign CAR + MANY to mean “many cars.”
• You can also form the sign, then point with your index finger at a number of locations in your signing area. You can sign HOUSE then point around in your signing area to mean “many houses.”

Possessives are rarely used because you can usually use context. However, you can sign the letter “S” with a twist of your wrist after you sign the noun or fingerspell the word that is in possession of the thing you are talking about.

Negatives

To form a negative, you can do a few things:

• Sign the word NOT before the intended word. In relation to English, this adds the un-, im-, in-, or dis- prefix to the word (NOT + HAPPY = “unhappy”).
• Shake your head back and forth while signing the word (BELIEVE + (shake head) = “don’t believe”).
• For some signs, you can twist your hand downward to indicate a negative (WANT + (twist hands so palms face downward) = “don’t want”).

Articles

Articles (a, an, and the) are normally left out of basic sign language conversation. They are not necessary. However, articles are sometimes used for teaching deaf students English.

Punctuation

Like articles, punctuation marks are left out. They are also unnecessary (facial expression suffices). If you feel you need to add a punctuation mark, just trace the shape of the mark in the air with your pointer finger.

Numbers

Please see the Numbers section of our ASL Dictionary for videos of how different numbers are signed in ASL.

Repeating Signs

Repeating a sign several times can make that sign plural. Repetition can also add another dimension to ASL. To show a continuous action, you would form the sign with a repeated, slow circular movement. To show a recurrent action, you would form the sign with several quick repeated movements. For example, you can sign LOOK several times with a slow motion to show that you gazed steadily at something, but signing LOOK with a quick repeated motion shows that you glanced at something numerous times.

We hope we were able to clear some things up about basic sign language for you! Now that you are armed with this information, are you ready to learn some ASL? Then jump on over to our free American Sign Language lessons!

> Want to learn more? Find out which Start ASL course is right for you >

In this article, you will read about various online tools that can help you convert simple or complex texts or words into sign language.

Learning a different language is not easy at all, and to learn the sign language seems a different deal altogether. Although there are different types of online training courses available that can help you learn sign language for better understanding among people with hearing disability, sometimes we need a quick translation for the exact words if we are not so good at learning sign language.

To ease this situation, here we have some online web application for you that can help you search the signs to be conveyed at that exact moment without any hassle. You can pretty much translate most of then text online. So, let us see how these tools work during the time of establishing a communication with people having hearing disability.

Here we have listed five web application that can help you convert the simple or complex words and sentences into sign language instantly. Most of these websites use American Sign Language as Natural language for the people with hearing disability. It is primarily used to communicate with people having a hearing disability in USA and Canada. Hence, it is important to remember to use the application consciously.

HandSpeak

Handspeak.com is a content web application that helps you communicate with culturally deaf people using sign language followed by the codes of American Sign Language or other sign languages. This website consists of the online grammar, dictionary, fingerspelling, literature, ASL writing, etc based on ASL codes that also helps the ASL community to further their knowledge and learn sign language easily.

This website provides result of the searched word in the form of a GIF or video that help you better understand and replicate the movements of hand for ease of communication.

Try this web application here. 

WeCapable

This is another easy web application that converts simple texts into the sign language in seconds.  When you visit the website, you can easily see the translator on the homepage itself where you can type in your simple English text and the result will be shown in the sign language. Also, you can also see the full chart of the sign language w.r.t. English alphabets by clicking on “Show Alphabets”.

Try this web application here.

LingoJam

LingoJam is a simple to use web application where you can translate your English text into a sign language on the homepage itself. This website also uses American Sign Language as a base to convert your simple text into the sign language. Specifically, this website converts the English characters used in the sentences into a sign language for a simple understanding of words and sentences as a whole.

Try this web application here.

Fun Translations

As the name suggests, this website is more than just a sign language translator. Only one part of it consists of the sign language or finger-spelling (using fingers to explains the English letter). There are other types of translator available on the website, some can prove to be really good and some translations can be just for fun  (for example the Dothraki Translator).

Even with so many options of translations, you can rely on the sign language translator on the website as this website uses a simple finger-spelling to convert your English sentence into the sign language sentence.

Try this web application for sign language here.

For other fun translations, click here.

Deaf Alphabet

Deal Alphabet also used the same American Sign Language protocol to translate the written English text into a sign language. This web application can be accessed on the homepage itself. You can simple past your English sentence on the space given on the left side of the website, and within seconds the website will show you the results.

Try this web application here.

In brief

All these web applications work on the same feature of using the American Sign Language as their protocol to convert the English sentence into a sign language. It can be seen that this protocol used finger-spelling as its base to convert the complex English sentences into the sign language. This language evolved into a natural language in the Deaf community and hence used in the USA and Canada predominantly to communicate with people having hearing disabilities.

These tools can be used when you are in immediate need to communicate in the sign language. However, if you are looking for training in the sign language, we shall recommend you to take up a training course provided by various online training centers for better understanding and communication vocabulary.