American Sign Language Free Classes (ASL 2 – Unit 3)

ASL 2 – Unit 3

In this unit of the American Sign Language free classes, you will be learning about time duration and regularity.

Visit the Online Course Vocabulary Category for this unit to view videos of these phrases.

Phrases

• Every morning I wake up happy because I sleep all night.
• I can’t sleep. I’ve been tossing and turning all night.
• I don’t like football but I do like race car driving shows on Thursdays evenings.
• Is that right?
• Once a week in May my grandfather watches his favorite television show.

Read this outline, and then watch the conversation in action on the video clip. Try to recognize what is being said. Watch the video again until you can follow the conversation without the outline.

A: I SICK-OF NEIGHBOR DOG BARK ALL-NIGHT EVERYDAY. I WAKE-UP++ AGAIN++.
“I am so sick of my neighbor’s dog barking all night everyday. It keeps waking me up.”

B: FINISH MEET TALK-WITH FINISH THEM?
“Have you talked to them about it?”

A: I WRITE LETTER LEFT THEIR MAIL TWO-DAYS AGO I NOT HEAR THEM “don’t know”.
“I wrote them a letter and left it with their mail two days ago. I haven’t heard back from them.”

B: YOU YOURSELF CL:1(person)”walk” PERSON MEET DISCUSS WITH THEM.
“You should probably go talk to them about it in person.”

A: I KNOW BUT THEY NOT NICE PEOPLE.
“I know, but they aren’t nice people.”

B: NOT GO CHAT WITH THEM MAYBE YOU SHOP STORE BUY EARPLUGS.
“If you don’t talk to them, you might have to just go out and buy earplugs.”

A: HA-HA VERY FUNNY.
“Ha-ha. Very funny.”

Conversation Explained

A: I KNOW BUT THEY NOT NICE PEOPLE.
“I know, but they aren’t nice people.”

In this sentence, Deborah used the Signed English sign for “I”. While this sign isn’t correct ASL, you will probably see this sign often, so I want to make sure you know what it is.

A: HA-HA VERY FUNNY.
“Ha-ha. Very funny.”

In this sentence, Deborah used the sign for “very”. In ASL, this isn’t always necessary. “Very” can usually be conveyed using facial expression.

You can indicate duration by inflecting time signs. For example, when you sign DAY, MORNING, or NIGHT with bigger signs, a longer movement, and a head tilt, you have signed, ALL-DAY, ALL-MORNING, or ALL-NIGHT.

I will demonstrate these signs in the video below:

You can also use this to create signs like ALL-WEEK, ALL-MONTH, and ALL-YEAR.

To show something done on a habitual basis, you would use certain signs or modify the production of time signs.
For example, when you repeat the signs TOMORROW, WEEK, or MONTH, you create the words DAILY, WEEKLY, or MONTHLY.

You can also use numeral incorporation with these signs to create phrases like “every four days,” “every two weeks,” “every three months,” etc.

When you sign the days of the week with the normal handshape, but with a downward movement, you modify the meaning. For example, if you sign MONDAY with a straight downward movement instead of a small circular movement, this means EVERY-MONDAY.
The same works for signs like MORNING, AFTERNOON, and EVENING.

If you sign these with the same handshape, but a sweep-to-the-right movement, it means EVERY-MORNING, EVERY-AFTERNOON, and EVERY-EVENING.

I will demonstrate regularity in the video below:

Turn to page 5 in your workbook. In the video below, I will describe a recurring activity. I will describe when and how often the activity occurs. In this practice, I will give you parts of the description, but you need to figure out the rest. The missing parts will either be: morning, afternoon, evening, (a day of the week), or (a week relative to this week). For example, if I am signing “Every Tuesday afternoon,” I will give you “Every _____ afternoon” or “Every Tuesday _____.” If I am signing “Every evening last week,” I will give you “Every _____ last week” or “Every evening _____.” You will need to figure out what the missing information is. Write the answer on the line. The first one has been done for you.

When you’re finished, check your answers in the back of the workbook. Go back and review the questions you missed. Then, come up with 5 new statements and practice signing them.

In DJSC! A Student’s Guide to Mastering ASL Grammar, read Chapter 5 (ASL Morphology), Section 5.5. (Time). This section explains and demonstrates everything you need to know about time in ASL. This is a good review of everything you’ve learned about time so far and also includes more detailed information. You can also read Section 5.4.2. (Temporal Aspect) for a quick preview of what you will be learning in the next unit.