The ASL alphabet is your fallback for anything that has no sign: names, streets, brands, book titles. Hold your dominant hand up at shoulder height, palm facing the person you are talking to, and keep it still. Only the fingers move between letters, never the whole arm.
F through J adds the first letter with movement. I and J share a handshape: J is I traced downward in a hook, so if your I is clean your J will be too.
K, M, N and O are where most beginners slow down. M and N differ only in how many fingers cover the thumb (three for M, two for N), so check your thumb before you check your speed.
Several of these are letters you already know, rotated. P is K pointed down, Q is G pointed down. If one feels awkward, go back and check the letter it came from.
The last stretch. U, V and R all use the index and middle finger and are told apart by spacing: together for U, spread for V, crossed for R. Z is drawn in the air with your index finger.
Names are what fingerspelling is really for, so practice on names rather than on words that already have signs. Keep your hand in one spot and let the letters flow into each other. Clarity beats speed every time.
Sign each letter before the clock runs out. Accuracy still counts, so shape the letter properly rather than rushing through it.
ASL numbers are their own system, not counting on your fingers. For 1 through 5 the palm faces you, the signer, rather than the person you are talking to. That palm direction is part of the number.
4 and 5 finish the palm-inward set. At 6 the palm turns outward and stays that way for the rest of the digits, so 6 is the moment the rule flips.
7, 8 and 9 each pin the thumb to a different fingertip: ring finger for 7, middle for 8, index for 9. Palm stays out.
Longer numbers are signed one digit at a time, left to right, in a single steady rhythm. Phone numbers, house numbers and years all work this way, so a clean digit-by-digit flow is worth drilling on its own.
Every digit, against the clock. Watch the palm flip at 6.
Some states have their own sign, and several have more than one depending on where you are. Plenty are simply fingerspelled. These six are commonly spelled out, and they are short enough to build speed on.
Country signs are worth learning from Deaf signers of that country, since many older American signs for other nations have been replaced by the local ones. Until you know the current sign, spelling is the safe choice.
Brand names and businesses almost never have standard signs, so they get fingerspelled. Regulars in a Deaf community often shorten them, but spell the full name until you have seen the short form used.
Short letter strings come up constantly, and they are spelled fast. Because there is no word to fall back on, every letter has to be clear.
A mix of everything in this unit. Keep your hand parked in one place and let the letters do the work.
ASL pronouns are points. I is a point at your own chest, YOU is a point at the person you are addressing. The possessives use a flat palm instead of an index finger: MY is a flat hand on your chest, YOUR is a flat palm pushed toward the other person.
The signs that open and close almost every conversation. Facial expression carries as much of the meaning as the hands here: a flat face on HELLO reads as bored, not neutral.
A handful of high-frequency signs that show up in introductions, questions and small talk. You will reuse all five constantly.
Lesson 4 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
The signs that ask for information. Every one of them wants furrowed eyebrows, not raised ones, and they normally land at the end of the sentence. Unit 5 puts them into full questions.
Everything from this unit, mixed together and against the clock.
Lesson 1 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Sign each question with your eyebrows raised and held up the whole way through. The camera checks your face as well as your hands here, so keep the brows up until the last sign is finished.
Lesson 3 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Drill the question signs on their own with the brows furrowed. Getting the expression automatic now means you can think about word order later.
Full questions, question word last, brows down the whole way. Read the gloss, not the English underneath it.
Question signs against the clock. Brows down for the WH words.
Lesson 1 of 5. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
The core identity signs. DEAF traces from near the ear to near the mouth (or the reverse; both are used). HEARING circles in front of the mouth, because it literally means the one who talks.
Lesson 3 of 5. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
The introduction question, signed properly. Eyebrows up and held, eye contact steady. Notice there is no sign for are in any of these.
Lesson 5 of 5. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Lesson 1 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Three signs where the face is part of the sign itself. Your head does as much work as your hand here, so let it move.
Agreement signs, each carried by a nod. The nod should start with the sign and finish with it, not arrive afterwards.
Negation signs with a headshake held across the whole sign. Keep shaking until the hand stops.
Lesson 5 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
The same question signs from Unit 5, now with the camera checking your eyebrows. Furrow before the sign starts and hold it.
ASL happens in a box of space in front of your body, and where you sign matters as much as what you sign. Start with the two points you will use most: yourself and the person in front of you. Everything else in this unit builds on those.
Lesson 2 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Some ASL verbs carry their subject and object in the direction they move. You do not sign I MEET YOU as three separate ideas; the verb travels from you to them and that movement is the grammar.
Put the direction to work. In each of these, aim the verb rather than signing it in neutral space.
Name a person, then keep them in one spot. Sign each of these toward a consistent location off to one side.
Directional signs against the clock.
Your first real sentences. Notice what is missing from the gloss: there is no sign for is and none for to. MY NAME A-L-E-X is the whole sentence.
Turn the introduction around. Watch the eyebrows: the name question rides on raised brows, the WHERE and WHO questions on furrowed ones.
Phone numbers are signed digit by digit in one steady run. Sign NUMBER first so the other person knows what the digits are for.
Until someone gives you a name sign, fingerspelling is how you introduce yourself, so it needs to be clean under pressure. Keep the hand parked and let only the fingers move.
String it together the way you would actually meet someone. Sign each line as one thought, with a small pause between them.
The introduction signs against the clock.
Addresses mix signs, numbers and fingerspelling in one sentence. Street names get spelled, and signers routinely shorten the street type to two letters rather than spelling it out.
Most city names are fingerspelled, and the big ones get abbreviated. Spell the abbreviation crisply, since there is no word to fall back on.
Letter strings you will see constantly. They are spelled fast in real conversation, so drill them until they are one motion rather than three.
WHERE goes at the end and takes furrowed brows. Hold the furrow from the first sign, not just on WHERE.
FROM and MOVE both carry direction. Aim them: FROM pulls away from the place, MOVE travels toward the destination.
Place signs and spelling, against the clock.
How conversations open and close. A flat face on any of these reads as disinterest, so let the expression match the greeting.
Courtesy signs. PLEASE circles flat on your chest; SORRY circles with a fist. Same location, same motion, different handshape, so keep them distinct.
The repair kit for a conversation that is going too fast. These four signs will keep you in more conversations than any amount of vocabulary.
CAN and CAN'T are both two-handed and look similar, so the movement has to be decisive. Pair CAN'T with a headshake.
Short exchanges built from everything so far. Sign each as one thought.
Everyday signs against the clock.
Lesson 1 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Your closest relatives. Watch the forehead/chin rule at work: FATHER at the forehead, MOTHER at the chin, and the sibling signs built from two pieces each.
People outside the immediate family. These are all two-handed and none of them use the forehead/chin rule.
Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Every one of them is placed by the same forehead/chin rule, so predict the location before you watch.
Family sentences. Give each person their own spot in your signing space and point back to it rather than re-signing the relationship every time.
Family signs against the clock.
The verbs that describe an ordinary day. EAT and DRINK both mime the real action, which is a pattern you will see again and again in ASL verbs.
Movement verbs. All of these are directional: aim them where the movement actually goes instead of signing them in neutral space.
Verbs about language itself. Note that SIGN and TALK are different signs, and using TALK for signing is a common beginner slip.
Lesson 4 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Chain activities together with a time marker at the front of each. Set the time once, then let it carry.
Everyday verbs against the clock.
Lesson 1 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Every weekday is its own letter moved in a small circle, so the handshape is doing all the work. Sunday breaks the pattern and uses two hands.
Watch the timeline in these: YESTERDAY moves back past your cheek, TOMORROW pushes forward from your chin. The direction is the tense.
Tap your wrist for TIME, then sign the number. There is no sign for o'clock and none for it is, so the gloss really is that short.
Months are fingerspelled rather than signed, and the long ones get abbreviated exactly as they are in writing.
Days and time signs against the clock.
Lesson 1 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Emotion signs where the face is not optional. Let your expression match the sign, and make the movement as big as the feeling.
A wider emotional range. FINE is the polite default answer and is signed with one hand; the rest here use two.
The same signs at different intensities. Change the size and speed of the movement and let your face do the grading; the handshape does not move.
Ask and answer. Notice that the reply often needs no pronoun at all.
Feeling signs against the clock. Keep the face matched to the sign.
Lesson 1 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Four colours, one shared movement. BLUE, GREEN and YELLOW are the same shake with a different letter, so get the movement right once.
The rest of the basic palette. BLACK and WHITE are not initialised: they point at something that is that colour instead.
Colour goes after the noun in ASL, which is the reverse of English. Read the gloss order carefully.
Ask and answer about colour. The question sign lands at the end.
The palette against the clock.
Food signs are heavily mimetic: most of them show you eating or drinking the thing. EAT and FOOD share a handshape at the mouth.
Common foods. APPLE and FRUIT both sit at the cheek and differ only in handshape, so keep them apart.
Lesson 3 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Meal names are built from a time sign plus EAT, so the pattern is predictable once you have the time signs from Unit 14.
Ordering, asking and refusing. Note that the refusal needs no extra sign, just the headshake.
Food signs against the clock.
High-frequency verbs that unlock longer sentences. WANT and NEED are close in meaning but not in form: WANT pulls toward you with both hands, NEED is a single sharp X moving down.
Verbs about thinking. All of them start at or near the forehead, which is where ASL locates mental activity.
The small verbs that hold a day together. GIVE and TAKE are directional: aim them at whoever is giving and receiving.
Lesson 4 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Full sentences using every rule so far: time first, question word last, no filler signs, face doing grammar.
The core verbs against the clock.
The places and people of school life. SCHOOL is two flat hands clapping, and several signs in this unit build on that same movement.
The verbs of learning. LEARN takes information from the page and puts it in your head, which is exactly what the sign shows.
Things on the desk. These are among the most mimetic signs in ASL: most of them show you using the object.
Lesson 4 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Sentences about study. The question sign lands at the end, as always.
School signs against the clock.
Workplace basics. WORK is two fists tapping, and JOB is the J handshape landing on the same spot.
Many profession signs are the AGENT ending, two flat hands moving down the body, added to a verb. TEACH plus AGENT gives TEACHER.
The vocabulary of looking for work. Job titles with no standard sign get fingerspelled, which is most of them.
Lesson 4 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Work sentences. Notice that WHERE and WHAT both land at the end.
Workplace signs against the clock.
Body signs are mostly just pointing at the body part, which makes them the easiest vocabulary in ASL to guess.
HURT is two index fingers pointed at each other, and you sign it at the place that hurts. Sign it at your head for a headache.
Medical vocabulary. HOSPITAL draws an H on the shoulder, where a red cross armband would sit.
Lesson 4 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Health sentences. HURT is signed at the location of the pain, so aim it.
Health signs against the clock.
Weather signs paint the weather in the air in front of you. RAIN drops both hands, WIND sweeps them sideways.
HOT twists away from the mouth as though spitting something out; COLD is two fists shivering. The face does half the work in both.
The four seasons. SPRING pushes a plant up through a closed hand, which is worth watching closely.
Lesson 4 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Weather sentences. Push the intensity into the movement rather than reaching for an extra sign.
Weather signs against the clock.
MONEY taps a flat hand into the palm, as though counting bills. BUY starts from the same place and hands the money over.
Dollar amounts use numeral incorporation, the same trick as the time signs: the number handshape makes the DOLLAR movement.
Shopping vocabulary. STORE is two flat O hands swinging forward, like a shop awning.
Lesson 4 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Buying and asking. Numbers ride inside the money signs where they can.
Money signs against the clock.
Vehicle signs mostly mime operating the vehicle. CAR steers, BIKE pedals, BOAT rides the swell.
The verbs of a journey. GO and COME are directional, so aim them from and toward the places you mean.
Travel logistics. AIRPORT is the AIRPLANE handshape taking off, so learn the plane first.
Lesson 4 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Journeys in space. Establish the places before you move between them.
Travel signs against the clock.
Device signs follow the shape of the device. PHONE is a Y handshape at the ear, from the days when a handset had two ends.
Internet vocabulary. Newer terms have no settled sign yet and get fingerspelled, which is normal rather than a gap.
Lesson 3 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Watching and reading. MOVIE is two flat hands, one flickering against the other like a projector.
Everyday technology sentences.
Technology signs against the clock.
Sport signs mime playing the sport, so most of them are guessable. BASKETBALL shoots, BASEBALL swings.
Things people do for fun. PLAY is two Y handshapes shaking, and it turns up inside a lot of activity signs.
Competition vocabulary. WIN and LOSE are a matched pair and worth drilling together so they stay distinct.
Lesson 4 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Asking and answering about free time.
Activity signs against the clock.
Size signs are modulated, not fixed: how far apart your hands travel is how big the thing is. Let the movement do the describing.
Physical description. In ASL you describe a person head down: hair first, then face, then build.
Comparison words. SAME and DIFFERENT are opposites built from the same starting position, so keep the movement clean.
Lesson 4 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Description sentences. Noun first, then the description, every time.
Description signs against the clock.
Lesson 1 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Classifiers only work once the thing is named, so the naming signs come first. Learn these, then attach the handshapes.
Lesson 3 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Signs that pair naturally with classifiers. Each of these describes where something is or how it got there.
Practise the naming half of the pattern. In a real conversation each of these would be followed by a classifier showing what happened.
The naming signs that classifiers attach to.
Lesson 1 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Lesson 2 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Vocabulary for talking about the community itself. These come up in any conversation about Deaf events, culture or access.
Lesson 4 of 6. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
Sentences about Deaf culture and community life.
Community signs against the clock.
Lesson 1 of 7. A short reading covering the concepts behind this lesson. No camera or signing required, so take your time and continue when you're ready.
A full introduction, start to finish. Sign it as one conversation rather than as separate items.
Five questions in a row. Watch the eyebrows switch between the yes/no question and the WH questions.
Now the other side of the conversation. Notice how short a complete answer is once the filler words are gone.
Longer sentences with people placed in your signing space. Give each person a spot and keep them there.
How to leave well. LATER carries most of the work here.
Every core sign from the course, against the clock. This is the whole trained vocabulary of Signpost in one run.