Sign Language 101: How to Sign Numbers
When you’re communicating with a deaf person, just as you would with a hearing person, you sign numbers for expressing everything from telephone numbers to addresses and amounts of money. In this guide, we’ll show you how to sign numbers from 1 to 25, as well as some others that are frequently used. You’ll also learn how to continue signing additional numbers on your own.
When Should You Use Numbers?
In sign, you should use numbers just as you would in regular conversation situations:
- Address or street number
- Telephone number
- Age (even if we fib on it a little)
- Amount of money (dollars and cents)
- Credit card number
- Social Security number
- Score of a sports game or match
- Grade on a test
- Ingredient amount in a recipe
Numbers
Signing the numbers isn’t hard to learn. In fact, you’ll see that many of the signs are sequential and use your fingers in a logical order.
When signing numbers, keep your hand steady.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11 (a)
11 (b)
12 (a)
12 (b)
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24 (a)
24 (b)
25
30 (a)
30 (b)
100 (a)
100 (b)
1,000 (a)
1,000 (b)
When signing numbers, you may recognize some similarities with some of the fingerspelled alphabet letters. The sign for the number TWO is the same as the sign for the letter V, but with a different palm orientation (for the number TWO, the palm faces in toward you). When signing the number SIX, you may notice that it closely resembles the letter W. You may also see that the number 0 is close to the letter O. What’s the difference? When signing these numbers, you’ll keep your fingers stretched and extended outward, with the tips of your fingers touching. The letters W and O are signed with your fingers slightly bent inward and rounded. For W, your thumb slightly overlaps your pinky finger. For O, your thumb slightly overlaps your first two fingers (index and middle).
How to Keep on Counting
We’ve shown you the most common signs for counting, but, of course, the numbers are endless! You've learned how to sign 1 to 25 consecutively, but to sign higher numbers, here’s what to do:
- 20. Use your index finger and thumb, and open and close them twice.
- 21. Think of the American “21 gun salute”—You sign 21 by using the L handshape and moving the top part of your thumb (just as if you were pulling the trigger on a gun!).
- 22 and double numbers (such as 33, 44, 55). Sign the number moving from left to right (if you’re right-hand dominant) with the palm facing down. You sign from right to left if your dominant hand is your left.
- 23. Position your hand to number THREE, bend your middle forward in front of the hand, and move the middle finger up and down twice as if you are waving this finger.
- 24. This is created by two signs, beginning with the L handshape and then changing to the number FOUR handshape.
- 25. Use the FIVE handshape and bend the middle outward and move up and down twice.
- 26 to 29. Use the same pattern as the number 24. Use the L handshape first and then change to the next number.
Counting in the hundreds now! Numbers are borrowed from the Roman numerical system, using the C handshape to mean HUNDRED. For one hundred, we sign using the number ONE handshape with the palm facing outward instead of inward, as the next sign will follow with C. This pattern is the same for 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900; you first form the number and then follow with the C handshape.
To sign odd numbers in the hundreds, you sign the first number and then sign HUNDRED (again, that’s the handshape C), and end with the sign for the consecutive number(s). For example, for 307, you sign a total of three signs: THREE, HUNDRED, SEVEN. For 615, you sign: SIX, HUNDRED, FIFTEEN.
A thousand involves two hands. Rules change her about the use of primary numbers. To sign 1,000, the number “one” handshape faces inward and then becomes a bent-B handshape, which ends at the palm of the constant hand. You sign numbers in a similar pattern as when you sign in the hundreds. For example, for 1,314, you sign the following: ONE, THOUSAND, THREE, HUNDRED, FOURTEEN (a total of five signs).
When signing more than just one number (for example, the year 2004), you start your hand a little left in front of you and slide it toward the right with each consecutive number signed. Orientation for these four signed numbers is outward. You can liken this to “number columns,” as children learn when studying math—there is the ones column, the tens column, and the hundreds column. You create imaginary number columns in the signing space in front of you. Numbers, like letters, move from left to right if your right is your dominant hand and vice versa if you are left-handed.
For more sign language help, check out our Quick Guides Sign Language 101: Basic Phrases, Sign Language 101: How to Sign the Alphabet, and Sign Language 101: Making Small Talk. Happy signing!
From The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Conversational Sign Language Illustrated by Carole Lazorisak and Dawn Donohue
