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This is a list of common prepositions. There is a big difference in just knowing the signs for the words and using the right sign for the meaning when it comes to prepositions. This lesson focuses on the signs while the next one is focused on the usage of those signs.

Vocabulary learned in this lesson:

If you need the captions for the video, please click the Closed Caption [CC] button in the video player.

Hello! Welcome to LearnSigns.com lesson number 25.

In this lesson we are going to talk about prepositions. Now prepositions are those words that talk about position of things to other things. And some words don’t really seem like prepositions. I’ve always thought of prepositions as any relationship a bird can have to a cloud. Can be IN, OVER, UNDER. But there are other words that fall into prepositions. So we are going to talk about many of those in this lesson. And really all I am going to do is show you the sign this time around and not necessarily talk about the deep definitions of some of these words. Because some of them are somewhat complicated. So the next lesson, lesson number 26, I’ll will cover over what some of these words mean and how to use them properly. Because there can be multiple ways to sign the words depending on what the word means.

So lets go through the prepositions. And this certainly is not all the prepositions. There’s many more. But here are the ones that will be most common and easiest to learn. Alright?

IN

IN – You have a cup and you are going to put something INSIDE the cup. This can be INSIDE, IN, INTO.

OUT – Same sign but you just pull it OUT.

OUT

So the motion going INTO it is IN. And then if you were to start here and go OUT. IN and OUT.

WHILE

WHILE – WHILE this was going on, we went to the store. DURING the movie someone screamed. This can also be AS. AS I was eating, my sister came to talk to me.

WHILE, DURING or AS. Now this is your index fingers pointing out and then your palms are up on both hands. You are going to point up, back towards yourself and then roll under and forward. WHILE, DURING or AS.

Now the opposite direction, where you start at the bottom and you come back towards yourself, up and out, this is SINCE. And the way to think of this is: in the past, SINCE then, UP TO NOW. So you are going to go from back to forward. SINCE

WHILE, DURING or AS goes from forward to back, or top to bottom. And then SINCE is from bottom to top. SINCE. SINCE I learned how to do this. So in the past, UP TO NOW. This is also the word UP TO NOW, SINCE.

ON – This is simple. ON. ON

And then OFF. You can pull it OFF. Now, this is like to take something OFF the table. It is not necessarily to turn something OFF, though you will see it used that way.

ON – OFF

OVER – Now OVER and ABOVE you can do it two different ways. Same way with UNDER or BENEATH.

OVER you are showing the movement of your dominant hand. If you are right-handed, that would be your right hand. OVER. Or you can also do it with the A. OVER or ABOVE.

And then UNDER or BENEATH. UNDER or BENEATH. Same idea but you can do it a couple of different ways. UNDER or BENEATH. It is also BELOW.

WITH

WITH – You take and put your two hands WITH each other. Or, TOGETHER. You can move it out to show the idea of duration. These two things have been TOGETHER for a long time. If it is just two items sitting on a table TOGETHER then you can put them TOGETHER. Or you can do TOGETHER or WITH over a duration of time.

WITHOUT – You do the sign WITH and the you just pull them apart and open. WITHOUT. WITHOUT

THROUGH

THROUGH – You are going to take your dominant hand, palm up, and then put it THROUGH the fingers of your other hand. Your non-dominant hand. You can do it THROUGH these two fingers, or THROUGH these two. THROUGH. Going THROUGH.

TO

TO – Now this the preposition TO not the infinitive. Like, to eat, to dream. It is not to eat. You don’t say that. Because that to in the phrase to eat, to dream, doesn’t mean the preposition. It doesn’t mean movement from one place TO another. So this is movement from one place TO another. That would be TO, the preposition. TO

FROM

FROM – You are going to take your index finger pointing up with your palm out of your non-dominant hand. And then you are going to take the X of your dominant hand, of your…in my case right hand. With the palm kind of facing toward me or to the side…a natural way of doing this. Then you just pull back FROM the index finger. FROM. Where you FROM? Where are you FROM?

FOR

FOR – I did this FOR this purpose. Or because of, FOR. Or I am going to go get: I am going FOR. There are many different usages for the word FOR and also the word OF, the next word. In those cases…that is what I want to cover in the next lesson because it really depends on what the word means as to what sign you would use. But, generally you can do FOR. Sometimes you will see this done a few times, FOR, FOR, FOR and that means WHY. FOR what purpose? FOR. There is also a sign for WHY, we’ve talked about that. But this is FOR. FOR what purpose? FOR

And then OF. Now OF has so many different meanings. Just the general word OF you can spell it. OF. O-F. But, if you know what the word OF means, then you should sign the meaning for the word. In some cases you don’t even need it at all. But if you have a meaning for the word, then that is what you want to sign. And that is one of the words we will cover in the next lesson. The word OF.

AROUND or ABOUT – You can do this two different ways. You are going to take your kisssy fingers, all your fingertips together and you can point your palm off to the side and then the index finger of your dominant hand is going to go AROUND. Or you can point your hand up. AROUND. AROUND or ABOUT. AROUND and ABOUT.

And then two very easy ones. UP – DOWN. Just point. UP – DOWN.

Alright? Here we go through them again.

IN

INSIDE

INTO

OUT OUT

WHILE, DURING or AS

WHILE

DURING the process of this, that happened.

And then, SINCE. SINCE comes up.

ON – Put this ON the table.

Or, OFF the table. Take it OFF the table.

OVER

OVER or OVER

UNDER or UNDER, BENEATH, BELOW

WITH or TOGETHER

Or, if you are showing these two people spend time TOGETHER, you can go WITH and show time or duration. TOGETHER

WITHOUT

THROUGH

TO – Now, remember this is the preposition. Moving FROM this place TO that place. TO

FROM

FOR

OF

AROUND or AROUND

Or, ABOUT

UP and

DOWN

This is LearnSigns.com lesson number 25. So LearnSigns.com/25. And the next lesson will go into more detail about some of these words. But until then work on these words. Start forming sentences. You’ve got plenty of words now. You’ve got adjectives, nouns, verbs. You’ve got prepositions now. You’ve got adverbs. Hmm, a few adverbs we’ve done. Not many.

So you’ve got plenty to actually make sentences and to be able to communicate. Find a friend and communicate as much as you can. And enjoy these new signs that you’ve gotten. And then we will go over more detailed meaning of these signs in the next lesson.

Thanks for watching!

The post LearnSigns 25: Prepositions appeared first on LearnSigns.

In the last lesson we talked about different professions. In that we covered doctors and nurses. This follow-up lesson talks about the different things you need to know when visiting the doctor’s office. Obviously this doesn’t cover everything, but these are several important ones. If there are any specific doctor office type words you would like to know about, leave a comment below.

Vocabulary covered in this lesson:

Hello! Welcome to LearnSigns lesson number 24.

We’re going to talk about the DOCTOR’S OFFCIE. In the last lesson we talked about professions. We talked about DOCTORS and NURSES.

Now let’s talk about the OFFICE visit.

You can do the Os to show OFFICE. This is just, the open hand is a ROOM. So you can do OFFICE like that with your open hands or you will see it done with the Os. DOCTOR’S OFFICE.

The NURSE we already did.

HOSPITAL

HOSPITAL – You draw an H like Red Cross on your shoulder. HOSPITAL

SICK

SICK – Sensitive fingers. You are going to touch your forehead and your chest, your stomach. Somewhere in that area. SICK

VOMIT – A great word. VOMIT. You take and PUKE it out. You can do it with the 4 or the 5 hand, and one hand is just fine or you can do two.

PAIN

PAIN – You take your index fingers and if you drove them together that would be very PAINFUL. That is the sign for it. Sometimes you will see it with a little twist. This could be HEAD ACHE, STOMACH ACHE. You show where the pain is.

FEVER – This is your temperature gauge here. Your thermometer. You take your F and you show a fever. Going up and down.

MEDICINE – This is with your sensitive finger again and you are going to rub the MEDICINE around like you are mixing the MEDICINE.

COLD

COLD – Like you are blowing your nose with one hand.

COUGH – Take your fist, or your S hand and you are going to pat your chest. COUGH

PRESCRIPTION – This is RX. Just the letters RX. PRESCRIPTION. This is also the sign for the PHARMACY. Or, you can do RX STORE – the PHARMACY.

SURGERY – Take your A and you are going to cut into your open hand. Or, if you have SURGERY on your shoulder. SURGERY on the heart. You take and use the A hand to show where the cut is. SURGERY

HEALTHY – This is the word for STRONG, or BRAVE, COURAGE. It is also HEALTHY. Your body is in good shape. HEALTHY

And then if you need to show a body part. There are signs for lots of different body parts. However, just for right now, you can point. If you are talking about your heart you point to your heart. If you are talking about your stomach, point to the stomach. Just point to the body part. And that will get you most of the time for your DOCTOR’S visits that you need to do.

Alight? Let’s go through these again.

DOCTOR

NURSE

OFFICE

HOSPITAL

SICK

VOMIT

PAIN

FEVER

MEDICINE

COLD – Now this is COLD as in SICK. Not COLD as in temperature.

COUGH

PRESCRIPTION

PHARMACY is RX or you can do RX STORE.

SURGERY

HEALTHY

And then the body parts you just point to what you need to show.

This is LearnSigns lesson 24. So you can go to LearnSigns.com/24 and you can find the transcript along with the vocabulary for this lesson.

Thanks for watching.

The post LearnSigns 24: Doctor’s Office appeared first on LearnSigns.

A short list of jobs or professions. Many can be done with the sign for the verb a person does and then add the person ending to the sign.

Vocabulary taught in this lesson:

If you need the captions for the video, please click the Closed Caption [CC] button in the video player.

Hello! Welcome to LearnSigns.com lesson number 23. Or you can do, 23. Or, 23. There are different ways to do the twenties. But most of your numbers after the twenties are pretty normal. You’ve been practicing your numbers I assume.

We are into the 23rd lesson. This is a new year. Starting a new year, 2013. And I’m glad to have you along with me. We have been doing these lessons for about six months. So I appreciate those of you who have continued to watch the lessons all of this time.

This lesson is going to be about professions or jobs you can have. So you can do the word JOB or WORK. You will also see it sometimes with JOB: JB. JOB or just WORK is fine.

DOCTOR

DOCTOR – Take you D and you touch the pulse. Some older folks you will see do it with the M. It is an older sign. It is still pretty common though among the older generation. So M for DOCTOR or D for DOCTOR.

And then NURSE is the same thing but with the N. The letter N. NURSE

PRESIDENT PRESIDENT

PRESIDENT – You take your 5s and then you come out to the S.

BOSS

BOSS – The person in charge. This is also the sign for COACH or anybody in authority. BOSS

JUDGE

JUDGE – Now this is JUDGE as in the verb to JUDGE something, to make a decision. You can use that for the person JUDGE, or you can do JUDGE and then do the PERSON ending. This is an ending you put on several of these signs that we are about to do to show that it is the person that does the action. So JUDGE. You can do the person who JUDGES.

POLICE – You are showing the badge on the chest. Sometimes you will see it with the open C hand. I like doing it with what I call the little C. POLICE

LAWYER

LAWYER – This is the word LAW and then the person who works with the LAW. Or you will see it with the palm in. This is the way I do it personally. With the palms together, LAWYER. But you will also often see it with the palm out. That’s fine. Both of those. LAWYER

SOLDIER

SOLDIER – This is the sign for ARMY, MILITARY so you can do SOLDIER. Again you can do it with just this, or you can say SOLDIER. Showing that it is the person that is in the MILITARY. SOLDIER

TEACHER

TEACH – Remember the sign for TEACH. Then we do the person ending. TEACHER

PREACHER – This is the sign PREACH, the letter F. And you PREACH, you deliver the message. PREACHER

MECHANIC

MECHANIC – This is to work a machine. Then you put the PERSON ending on it. MECHANIC. This is also the sign for PLUMBER. The same sign. MECHANIC or PLUMBER

INTERPRETER

INTERPRETER – I think we have gone all this time without learning the sign for INTERPRET or INTERPRETER. You take you F hands, or your 9s, and you put them together, your thumbs and your fingertips together. And then you give it a twist. INTERPRET. Sometimes you will see both hands go back and forth. Or just one. INTERPRET and then you put the PERSON ending on it. The PERSON who INTERPRETS. The INTERPRETER.

COOK or CHEF

This is the sign to COOK, the verb. To COOK. And then you put your PERSON ending on it. COOK. Or you will also see CHEF like this. CHEF. You take the CHEF’s hat. You show that it is a tall hat. The CHEF. Or, just CHEF.

WRITER

WRITER – The person who writes.

Now you can think of lots of other professions based on the verb that they do. Then often you can just add the PERSON ending. Sometimes you will see it called the -ER ending. But, it doesn’t always work with the -ER. For example, if you did JUDGE you wouldn’t say JUDGER. So just think of JUDGE and then the PERSON ending on that. So this is not just professions. Because you can use the PERSON ending in other words that wouldn’t be a job necessarily. So the idea is that you are showing the one who does the action.

Alright?

Again, JOBS, JOBS, WORK

DOCTOR or DOCTOR

NURSE

PRESIDENT

BOSS

JUDGE or you can do the PERSON who JUDGES

POLICE

LAWYER or LAWYER

SOLDIER

TEACHER

PREACHER

MECHANIC or PLUMBER

INTERPRETER

COOK or CHEF. Or you can also do COOK or CHEF like that.

And then, WRITER.

This is LearnSigns.com lesson 23. If you go to the website you can get the list of the vocabulary words there. Also, if you didn’t know, and you need the captions. I always put the transcript of the lesson with the videos. So if you watch it at LearnSigns.com or at YouTube, you can click the video button…or the Closed Caption button and be able to watch the captioning. So if you are downloading the videos and you need the caption then you can go to the website, LearnSigns.com/23 and you can read the captioning on there. I know there are some hard of hearing folks that are learning sign language for the first time (and I appreciate you watching the videos). Those can be a help to you if you are needing or depending on the captioning or reading lips, I will have that there at the website version of the video.

Again, thank you for watching. LearnSigns.com/23

The post LearnSigns 23: Professions appeared first on LearnSigns.

I recently returned from a trip to Ethiopia. I was visiting deaf churches and deaf schools. I spent almost 3 weeks in the country visiting some old friends and making new ones.

These photos are just a small selection of the people I met and the places I visited. The main language they speak in Ethiopia is called Amaharic and it has a unique alphabet. Therefore, to spell words in Ethiopian sign language is very different than American sign language. Besides that, many of the words themselves are signed like we do in ASL. I was able to communicate freely with the Deaf and had a wonderful time visiting.

I trust you and your family had a good Christmas. I will have a regular video again next week.

Merry Christmas from LearnSigns.com!

Along with teaching sign language and interpreting, part of my ministry or job is I am a missionary to the Deaf. And, so here are some pictures of a recent trip I took to Ethiopia.

These pictures were taken just before Christmas 2012. I was there 2 and 1/2 weeks. And I visited some deaf schools and a couple of deaf churches.

And so here are some pictures. The children you see in the vide… or the pictures here are all deaf children, with the exception of just a couple of them. The lady I stayed with, she’s a deaf lady, but then she has a hearing child. But for the most part these are all deaf children and the adults you see are either pastors, deaf churches, teachers in deaf schools. Or, they are deaf folks at the churches or schools. So here are just some pictures of my trip to Ethiopia. I was there 2 and 1/2 weeks and had a wonderful time. And glad to be back home though. So these are pictures from that trip.

I will be back later with another video. Of just our normal sign language video. But for now, enjoy these pictures and some of the sights and things I saw while I was in Ethiopia.

The post LearnSigns 22: Ethiopia Photos appeared first on LearnSigns.

This is a list of adjectives.

Vocabulary in this lesson:

Other words talked about:

Thank you for continuing to watch the videos. I have gotten some great feedback recently and I appreciate it when you write to me telling me how these lessons are a help to you.

If you would like to watch the video with the captioning, click the Closed Captioning [CC] button in the video player window.

LearnSigns.com Lesson Number 21

We are going to talk about adjectives in this lesson. And there will be adjectives along the way. Any kind of describing words, we are going to have several of those. But here is a lesson, or a set of words that are just adjectives. And some basic ones.

This first one will look somewhat familiar. Remember this word is PLAY, PLAY. And SILLY is right here in front of the face instead of off to the side like PLAY, SILLY is right in front of the face. We talked about that before when we talked about PLAY. PLAY can be done with one or two hands, most often with two. And then SILLY is just one hand and it is right here. It twists back and forth. It is your Y hand, twisting around in a circle.

FOOLISH is similar except it is just a single motion. FOOLISH. You start with your palm facing toward you and then you twist it so that your palm is out. Come from top to bottom. Or, it is a diagonal. It is not really left, right, up or down. It is a diagonal. FOOLISH FOOLISH It is kind of a strong word. FOOLISH. So it is just a single sign going across there.

WISE

WISE – You take your X and it is like you are hanging it on a hook right here on your forehead. WISE WISE

SMART

SMART – Take your sensitive finger: so it is your 5 with your middle finger pulled down. You are going to touch right here in the middle of your forehead and you turn it out. SMART SMART

This is the word SHARP, and I think it comes from the word SHARP. SHARP as in a knife being SHARP. Now SHARP mentally is SMART.

HARD – Take your Vs and then you bend them down so you have your snake fingers and then you smash them together. HARD. Or you will also see it done back here more towards the wrist area. You hit the fingers together or the wrist area together. HARD or HARD.

SOFT – This one makes sense. SOFT. Like you are squeezing something SOFT.

SLOW – This is your B, or your mitten hand, is going to pull back over your other hand SLOWLY. SLOW. It goes from away from you to towards you. And the bottom hand is just sitting there. SLOW

FAST – It is like you are shooting marbles. FAST. Take and have your marble in your finger and fling it out there. Or, you will also see FAST done like this. FAST. QUICK or FAST, both of them are the same sign. FAST or QUICK. And then this is like we did the word RUN, when we talked about verbs, RUN. You are going to do that except you are going to unhook your fingers and then just pull back like you are shooting a couple of guns. FAST or QUICK

UGLY

UGLY – This is the letter X and you are going to pull it across the face. You draw it across the face. UGLY. Now this is used more for the appearance of things. The way things look. It looks UGLY. The person, the car an item, whatever is UGLY in appearance. It is not so much used for an action that is UGLY, or an attitude that is UGLY. Sometimes it is, but primarily it is a word describing physical features of what something looks like. UGLY

PRETTY

PRETTY – You take your 5 with your palm facing toward you and you are going to come across the face and then bring all your fingers together. PRETTY. The face is arranged nicely.

And then BEAUTIFUL is you do that and then you splash back. BEAUTIFUL. So arranged nicely and splashes back. Ah, that is BEAUTIFUL. BEAUTIFUL

YOUNG

YOUNG – Remember the word HAVE, to POSSESS, to HAVE. This is the same sign except now it has a motion that rotates up. YOUNG

OLD

You are showing the long beard of the OLD goat. OLD. You just take and you are going to – make like the letter S. OLD. Showing the beard.

AWAKE

AWAKE – This is also the word SURPRISE, AMAZE, ASTONISHED. AWAKE. Facial expression and context will tell you which one of those it is. If you are talking about a boy trying to get up in the morning. Then he is probably not SURPRISED, he is getting AWAKE. So context will help you know which one it is talking about.

ASLEEP

ASLEEP – This is your 5 hand and it is like the word PRETTY, except instead of coming around in a circle it comes straight down. It goes from 5 to where all your fingers are together. And I close my eyes and bow my head slightly when I do it. ASLEEP.

ASLEEP – I want to SLEEP.

Ok. Let’s go through those again.

SILLY

FOOLISH

WISE

SMART

HARD or HARD

SOFT

SLOW

FAST or FAST. It is also the word QUICK.

FAST or QUICK

UGLY

PRETTY, PRETTY

BEAUTIFUL, oh, that is BEAUTIFUL

YOUNG

OLD

AWAKE

and

ASLEEP

This is LearnSigns.com lesson 21. So you can go to LearnSigns.com/21. That will get you to this lesson. It will have a list of the vocabulary words there. So that you can read those. Also there will be some other posts in there talking about grammar and how to use these signs.

Make sure you visit the website LearnSigns.com.

Thanks for watching!

The post LearnSigns 21: Adjectives appeared first on LearnSigns.

This is another list of feelings. You can see lesson 10 for the first list.

Words taught in this lesson:

Other words discussed:

If you would like to watch the video with the captioning, click the Closed Captioning [CC] button in the video player window.

LearnSigns.com Lesson Number 20

We are going to talk more about feeling words.

FEELINGS

We talked about these before in an earlier lesson so you can look at those if you haven’t. And then you can get all the feeling words that I have done so far.

EMOTION

EMOTION – This is like the word EXCITED that we have done before. It is with your sensitive fingers is EXCITED. Now EMOTION is with the letter E.

EXPRESSION

EXPRESSION – Now this is talking about facial EXPRESSION. Not about a sentence or phrase or an expression, a way to say something. It is not that. This is facial EXPRESSION. And it is your letter X. I do it with my thumbs inside there.

EXPRESSION

UPSET – Oh, I don’t like that. I am UPSET. This is like the word FEEL except now it is with the P. And you bring it up and then you turn it with your palm up. So your palm is down and it becomes up.

UPSET

EAGER

EAGER – Excited to do something. You are EAGER.

JEALOUS

JEALOUS – You just draw a J right here on the corner of your mouth. JEALOUS

LAZY

Or your will also see it done LAZY like this where it just slides down. Remember this word is LORD. We talked about CHRIST, LORD, KING when we talked about religious words. So LORD is where it comes out more. And then LAZY, if you do it this way, it just slides down the body. Or, I do it LAZY like this so that it is clearer. There is a bigger distinction between the two.

*sigh* TIRED

TIRED – Just roll your hands down.

TIRED

LONELY – Oh, I am so LONELY. And this is the feeling of LONELY. This is the word ALONE as in a single item, ALONE. Or a person is alone. But this is LONELY like the feeling.

LONELY

GUILTY – It is the letter G or Q and you’re tapping the heart. You feel GUILTY. Ooo, done something wrong.

EMBARRASSED

EMBARRASSED – There are a couple of different ways to do this one. EMBARRASS is like your claws. Or you can do EMBARRASS like this. You are showing the red face, as it turns red.

EMBARRASS or ASHAMED

CONFUSED – Again with your claw hands and you are going to scramble up your mind. CONFUSED

OK? Those are FEELINGS. Let’s go through them again.

EMOTION

EXPRESSION – Good facial expression.

UPSET

EAGER

JEALOUS

LAZY or LAZY

TIRED

LONELY LONELY

ALONE

GUILTY

EMBARRASSED – Oh, I feel so EMBARRASSED

Or, EMBARRASSED – And you can do it with one hand.

And then, CONFUSED. CONFUSED

This is LearnSigns.com lesson 20. So you can go to the website and get the list of the vocabulary that we covered in this lesson.

LearnSigns.com/20

Thanks for watching.

The post LearnSigns 20: More Feelings appeared first on LearnSigns.

This is a list of major holidays and their signs. As with non-everyday words, there is not a standard way to do most of these signs. Your deaf friends will know this version of these signs even if this is not the way they do them. Have them teach you the preferred way for your area.

Words taught during this lesson:

If you would like to watch the video with the captioning, click the Closed Captioning [CC] button in the video player window.

Hello! This is LearnSigns.com lesson number 19. Nineteen.

I am going to talk about HOLIDAYS. HOLIDAYS – You take your 5 and put it right here at your chest. And this is VACATION. I think of it as the farmer standing around with this thumbs in his overalls. And then he is kind of relaxing. VACATION on HOLIDAY.

We just celebrated THANKSGIVING. THANKSGIVING. You do THANKS and then GIVING all together. THANKSGIVING

Next is CHRISTMAS. Now many of these have different ways you can do them. I am going to show you a couple of different ways for some of them, though there might be many, many more. So, CHRISTMAS  Here are the two ways that I have seen. CHRISTMAS. CHRISTMAS. It is like DAY except it is backwards and then it has the letter C instead of D. CHRISTMAS. You will also see this. CHRISTMAS. Take the C and it is facing forward and you roll it back toward yourself like you are opening a door. Except with just one C. CHRISTMAS

HANUKKAH. HANUKKAH – You are showing the Menorah. HANUKKAH

KWANZAA – Is similar to that except you are using the numbers 3. KWANZAA

NEW YEAR. NEW YEAR.

NEW YEAR – Now you say HAPPY NEW YEAR. You also do that for MERRY CHRISTMAS. MERRY CHRISTMAS. You just do the sign for HAPPY.

VALENTINE

VALENTINE – I do it this way. The V, just draw a heart with the Vs. VALENTINE

EASTER

EASTER – This is one that you will see many different signs for. EASTER. I do it like SUNDAY with the letter E. EASTER

And these are the types of signs that you really should find out from your local community. What it is they use for these holidays. But these will be some basic ways to do it. Most of the Deaf you meet will know these ways even if they don’t do it that ways. So EASTER is one way to do it. That is the way I like.

MOTHER’S DAY

MOTHER’S DAY – You just do MOM, MOTHER DAY. Simple as that. MOTHER’S DAY

FATHER’S DAY – Same thing except you do FATHER. FATHER’S DAY

MEMORIAL DAY

MEMORIAL DAY – It is like you are looking back. I’m using both hands you can do it with one hand. Look back day. MEMORIAL DAY

HALLOWEEN

HALLOWEEN – You are drawing the mask. HALLOWEEN or you will see it like this, HALLOWEEN like you are playing peek-a-boo. HALLOWEEN – cover it up.

Alright, we will go through it again.

HOLIDAY or it is also the word VACATION.

HOLIDAY or VACATION

THANKSGIVING THANKSGIVING

CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS

HANUKKAH

KWANZAA

NEW YEAR – This is just the two signs NEW and then YEAR. NEW YEAR

VALENTINE

EASTER

MOTHER’S DAY

FATHER’S DAY

MEMORIAL DAY

HALLOWEEN or HALLOWEEN

Of course there are many, many other holidays throughout the year. These will get you started. These are kind of the big ones. You can ask the Deaf around you how they do these HOLIDAYS.

This is LearnSigns.com lesson number 19. Nineteen. If you will go to LearnSigns.com/19 I will have the list of the vocabulary words there so you can read through that as you watch the video.

Thanks for watching!

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Handling verbs in past, present and future is much easier in sign language than in most spoken languages.

Most of the time, context will dictate the tense of a verb. If the person is talking about his vacation to the mountains last week then all his verbs are in the past tense. When you tell a story about last Christmas you don’t need to look for a way to add -ed to all your verbs. Context already tells your friends you are speaking in past tense.

Occasionally you will need to specify that you are talking about something in the future or past. This is easily done by adding the sign for FUTURE/WILL or PAST/BEFORE to your sentence. You can do the same thing for the present by adding the sign NOW. The addition of the PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE signs to a sentence can be added at the very front or end of a sentence in ASL. State what you have to say and then add PAST, NOW or FUTURE signs to the sentence and you have added tense to all your verbs.

Hello! Welcome to LearnSigns.com lesson number 18. In this lesson we are going to talk about verb tenses.

Now if you have learned another foreign language then you probably have experienced that there are lots of verbs. There are lots of times: future, past and all of that. In English we have all of that too, but we just don’t think of them that way. We don’t think of the complication that verbs can cause when you are trying to learn a new language. Many languages, as does English, again we just don’t think about it, have modifiers or things that make the verb either simple past or an action that is completed in the past or an action that started in the past but continues to the current time. So there are lots of different simple past tense and then present and future tenses as well. Well, you will be very happy to know that in sign language, generally, we talk about three tenses: past, present and future. And it’s really that simple.

Now most of the time context will tell you whether the action is in the past. A couple of lessons ago you learned several verbs, basic verbs. And you can put those verbs in the past or in the present or in the future when necessary. But context, like I said, context generally takes care of that. So you don’t have to, before every verb say, “in the past I did this.” You can just say, if you are talking about a story, let’s say something that happened last Christmas. Then every thing that is said is understood to be past tense. And therefore you don’t have to modify each verb so that it tells you that it is past tense. Like you would in a spoken language.

So past tense is controlled by context. Same way with present tense. If you are talking about something that will happen in the future, then that is also dictated by context as to how the verbs would be spoken, if you needed to speak them. But, typically with sign language you read what the person is saying and you know that it is future, past or present. Now if you are actually having to voice the verbs, voice the words, then you would need to definitely know exactly what is the English the word for that. But that comes naturally for those of us who speak English as our native language.

So there are only three basic tenses, or three tenses in sign language: past, present and future. And context dictates, for the most part, what you are going to do.

Now when you do need to distinguish whether this is something that happened in the past or in the future, then you can do your simple modifier, your sign. This is PAST, or BEFORE. In the PAST. And then PRESENT, if you need to do anything at all, you can do NOW, or you will also see it like this, NOW. I showed you both ways when we did that. NOW or PRESENT. And then FUTURE you take and you touch the side of your face and you push forward. FUTURE. And this is with your, with your…the end of your hand, the edge of your hand pushing forward. Where past tense you have your palm facing backward. If you are right-handed then when you do FUTURE your palm is going face to the left. Or if you are left-handed your palm will face to the right. So this is…you don’t push forward with your palm. You push forward with the side of your hand. So that is PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE.

So for example, if I wanted to say, “last year on my birthday,” I could say, “LAST, or in the PAST” and then the sign for BIRTHDAY. BIRTHDAY or whatever the sign is for BIRTHDAY in your area. That is one of the signs that changes quite a bit. But I can say, “last birthday, I ate.” I don’t have to say, “I A-T-E, this is the sign EAT, so A-T-E is a another sign.” It is not a different sign it is the same sign. So last birthday I ate cake, or cake, however you do cake.

It is just that simple for doing your verbs. So past tense you just put it in the past if it is necessary to say that and then you have your past tense verbs. Present you’ve got your present tense verbs. And then future for your future tense verbs.

You don’t have to say every time. “I WILL go to the store. I WILL eat lunch. I WILL take a nap.” If you are talking about things that are going to happen later today. You can say, “Today, I WILL go store. I WILL eat lunch. I WILL take a nap.” Again, I don’t have to modify every one of those future tenses with the WILL. You can, but it is also very simple if the context is already been set up that the future tenses, that you are talking about, the future. Then you don’t have to do all of that.

So think of tenses—past, present and future as being very simple in sign language. Now, I don’t mean to say it is simplistic. You can convey so much of what you say in English. You can convey it in sign language as well. It is just is done in a different way. And so when you are thinking about how do I put together a sentence and everything—context tells you most of the time what the verbs are. Past, present or future. And then if you do need to modify it you can modify it with PAST or BEFORE, PRESENT / NOW or FUTURE.

This is just a simple lesson on how to use those verbs that we learned just a couple of lessons ago. So it is LearnSigns.com/18.

I am also going to talk about some sentence structure in some upcoming lesson. And it would be helpful for you if you did some reading on sentence structure and how that is laid out. I am going to write some posts at LearnSigns.com that you can read. So occasionally when you are checking these videos go to the website and see what else I have written in there that will help you with your grammar, your sentence structure. And I will have those posts up there periodically between videos. Because they are not so visual. They are easy to read and probably easier to comprehend and digest. And then I can talk about those in a video as well.

Thanks for watching. This is LearnSigns.com/18.

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Here is a list of foods you might need for your big Thanksgiving meal this week! Of course, one of the most effective ways to get the food you want is to point. But since your mother taught you not to point and she will also be at the meal with you, it is best to learn the right sign for the food you want. Besides, you can talk with your mouth full when using sign language. You don’t have to take a break from the food to get more passed to you.

Vocabulary list for this lesson:

Have a great Thanksgiving with your friends and family!

If you need the captions for the video, please click the Closed Caption [CC] button in the video player.

Hello! Happy THANKSGIVING!

This week in the United States of America we have a holiday called THANKSGIVING. THANKSGIVING.

And this is lesson number 17. 17

We’re going to talk about THANKSGIVING foods. To start with we will do THANKSGIVING. This can be done a couple of ways. I like to do it with my THANKS and GIVING all one sign. So you have like you are going to do the word GIVE, all of your fingers together. You are going to PRESENT something to someone. GIVE. I do from here THANKSGIVING just all one sign. THANKSGIVING. THANKSGIVING

TURKEY – The main food that we have for THANKSGIVING is TURKEY. Taking your Q and you’re showing the beard that the TURKEY has. TURKEY. TURKEY

Now, there is kind of a comical way to do TURKEY that sometimes you will see. It is fun to do. It is not really the sign for it, but you take your 5-hand and then your A-hand with your thumb sticking out. And you put the…you’ve got your tail feathers here and you put the TURKEY’s body there with his mouth or with his head there. Or, you can do it with your pinky sticking out. TURKEY. TURKEY

Now, again, that is not really the sign for it. But you will see it done like that with the Deaf and hearing. It is just a fun way to do it.

GRAVY

GRAVY – You have your…this is MEAT. The sign for MEAT. Now the stuff dripping off the MEAT is the GRAVY. It is your open hand. Left hand here. And then your right hand is dripping the GRAVY off. Wiggling your fingers down. GRAVY

You will also see this sign. This is any type of DRESSING, something you would pour on top of something else. So you take and you pour it on there. You can use that for GRAVY as well.

POTATOES

POTATOES – Take your fork, your bent V-hand and you are going to poke it into the POTATO. POTATO. And you can do SWEET POTATOES. SWEET POTATOES.

BREAD – You’ve got your loaf of BREAD and you are going to slice the BREAD. BREAD. This could also be used for ROLLS or any type of BREAD. Just slice the BREAD.

SALAD

SALAD – You toss the SALAD. You’ve go all your ingredients in there, your greens and your vegetables, and then you toss it up. Your are doing this with your claw-hands. SALAD. SALAD

And then you can do SALAD DRESSING. You can do the DRESSING on the SALAD. Like I said, anything you can pour on top of something else. SALAD and then DRESSING.

CORN

CORN – This is your 1-hand. The number 1. And you’re going to put it kind of between your nose and mouth. You are going to push it in and give it a little twist. CORN. Or you can do it right at the mouth, that is fine. CORN

PUMPKIN

PUMPKIN – This is the same sign as WATERMELON. You are thumping the WATERMELON listening to see if it is ripe. WATERMELON or PUMPKIN. Because it is THANKSGIVING, we are going to say PUMPKIN.

PIE

PIE – You have your round pie and you are going to slice the pie. You can do this with your whole hand or sometimes you will see it done with the letter P. PIE – Cutting the PIE.

BEANS

BEANS – You’ve got your GREEN BEANS here and you are going to snap it apart like snap BEANS. BEANS. And you can say GREEN BEANS or just do BEANS like that. BEANS

PILGRIMS – I’ve seen a couple of signs for PILGRIMS. This is the one I guess I like. You do the letter P, both letters P. And you are going to come across and down like you are showing the bib. PILGRIM. PILGRIM

And then INDIANS. The PILGRIMS and INDIANS were together. This is the number 9 or the F and you are showing the markings on the face. INDIAN. And, of course, we know those are Native Americans, that’s the sign for it. INDIANS.

Alright?

THANKSGIVING

TURKEY or TURKY

GRAVY or GRAVY

POTATOES

SWEET POTATOES

BREAD or ROLLS

SALAD

CORN

PUMPKIN, thump the PUMPKIN

PIE or PIE

And then GREEN BEANS

Those are your THANKSGIVING foods and I also showed you PILGRIM and INDIANS.

With THANKSGIVING you usually sit around with your FAMILY. Remember FAMILY, we did that sign before. And also your FRIENDS. I don’t know that we’ve learned this one yet. FRIENDS. This is your two Xes and you are going to hook them together. FRIENDS

FRIENDS and FAMILY all SIT down. This is the sign for SIT and I am doing it with both hands at a big table. All SIT down for THANKSGIVING dinner.

Thank you for watching, watching LearnSigns.com. This is lesson number 17. So you can go to LearnSigns.com/17 to find this lesson. Thanks for watching!

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Along with the scattered verbs you have learned in previous lessons, here is a lesson with some of the more common verbs. As you will learn, many verbs can be guessed at by doing the action that accompanies the verb. This won’t work in all cases, but many times it does. And if the word you are mimicking isn’t exactly the right sign, it may be close enough for your friends to guess what you are trying to communicate.

Words learned in this lesson:

If you need the captions for the video be sure to click the [CC] button on the video player.

Hello! Welcome again to LearnSigns.com lesson number 16. Sixteen. You can do 16 like this also. You can do 10-6, or rub the 6 with your thumb. 16. Just touching it once is the number 6. Remember you have 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. This is rub it for 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. Or my preference is to do 16 by doing 10-6, 10-7, 10-8, 10-9 and 20.

This is lesson I am going to talk about basic verbs. Verbs. And sometimes you will see the sign VERB like that. VERB. VERBS.

SPEAK. This is to SPEAK or to TALK. You can use it for SPEAK or TALK. Or you can use SAY or to TELL. To SAY. This can also be TALK. SPEAK or TALK and then SAY or TELL. If you want to make some kind of distinction between those.

HEAR

HEAR – And this is like you’ve got the sound coming in. You are HEARING. LISTEN also. LISTEN or HEAR.

There are a couple of different ways to do many of these signs, but the nice thing about VERBS is that many times what you would consider to be the natural action is a perfectly fine sign to use. So HEAR or LISTEN.

SEE

SEE – This is your 2 fingers–your eyes–of your V-hand and you are going to casually lay it out. SEE. This is something that does not require any effort. SEE.

Now, LOOK you will take and touch right up here with either finger and then you are going to turn it out. And this is more like you take notice of something. It is more of an active thing. To LOOK. Again, that is the distinction between the two, but one is an English word. The other one is an English word. Both of them when you sign them can be signed interchangeably because it is not tied necessarily to the English. However, there is the visual distinction that to SEE is more casual. Oh, I saw it happen yesterday. But to LOOK at is more active. You see how the hand makes more of an active–I’m putting my attention on it. To LOOK.

EAT

EAT – You’ve seen this when we did HOME. EAT. Just take all your fingers together and then you stick the food in your mouth. EAT.

DRINK

DRINK – Now this is DRINK like you are holding a cup. Then you turn it up and take a drink like water. Now to DRINK alcoholic type drinks you do it with the Y. The Y makes the distinction. An alcoholic type beverage and then just any other beverage. DRINK.

SMELL – Now this is SMELL as in to use your nose to sniff something. SMELL. If something STINKS, something SMELLS then you do STINK. SMELL or STINK. But this is the verb to SMELL and you just take like your wafting the rose SMELL right up to your nose. SMELL. And something can SMELL good or it can SMELL awful. SMELL. That would come to the idea of STINK it would be more of an adjective. It is telling you how it smells as opposed to the verb of [sniff sniff sniff] SMELLING something.

WALK

WALK – It is kind of odd. Do it with your 3 fingers like duck feet. And you are going to WALK. You will also see it done with the whole hand. But most of the time you will see it with the three fingers. To WALK. Back and forth. WALK.

SIT – We talked about this in the last lesson when we talked about CHAIR. SIT. SIT, you just SIT down. Take the little fingers, the little legs there and you are going to sit on the chair.

STAND

STAND — STAND. This is the person. This is a generic sign for a two-legged thing, in this case a person, and he is going to STAND. STAND. If you were sitting and you stand up you kinda do the motion up like that. STAND.

FALL

FALL – The person is STANDING and he FELL down. FALL.

RUN

RUN – Now there’s–this is the text-book sign for RUN. You take your Ls, both your Ls and you are going to lock the barrel of 1 L onto the trigger of the other L. And you will move them forward. Wiggle all four fingers and move them forward. RUN. Or you could do RUN. Like you are running. RUN

PLAY

PLAY – This is the Ys and you are going to shake them. This is over to the side. PLAY. This is the word SILLY. SILLY. And this is PLAY. PLAY is with your hands to the … you can do PLAY with 1 hand, though most of the time you see it with 2. But it needs to be to the side. Not right in front of the face. OK? Because that is SILLY and this is PLAY.

LIKE – We’ve talked about LIKE before. You are going to 5-8. You are going to start here at your chest and you will pull your heart’s string. LIKE. To pull the heart’s string. LIKE.

WANT

WANT – I believe we have covered this before too. You take your 5-hands and you are going to turn them palms up and then you pull back towards you into the claw. WANT.

OK? Basic VERBS again.

SPEAK or TALK

TELL or SAY

HEAR or LISTEN

SEE – This is casual and then LOOK is more active.

LOOK

EAT – Put the food in your mouth. EAT.

DRINK – A normal beverage.

SMELL

WALK – With either the 3s or the whole hand. WALK.

SIT

STAND

FALL

RUN

PLAY – And though this isn’t a verb, SILLY.

LIKE – Now LIKE is to enjoy something. That kind of LIKE. It’s not, this book looks LIKE that book. Not that kind of LIKE. It is not a comparison word. This is LIKE as in to enjoy something. LIKE.

WANT – It is the palms up with open 5-hands and then you come back to the claws. WANT

I want to welcome the many YouTube…or the iTunes subscribers. I just recently got the podcast listed in iTunes and several people have subscribed to the podcast through iTunes. I appreciate that. If you are subscribing through iTunes or some other podcast directory that allows you to leave comments, I would appreciate you rating the show and leaving comments. Tell other people what your thoughts are about LearnSigns.com. Also you can go to LearnSigns.com/16 and you can put comments right at the bottom of the video. And also the videos are available at YouTube. So any of those places that allows you to leave comments that will help other people who are curious about the podcast. They can let others know what it is about and how it works. You can perform a service for them as well.

Thank you for watching. Again this is LearnSigns.com/16. Episode 16.

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